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SATAN'S DEVICES 



AND T H 1 



BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 



m. L^PARSOJ 



KEY. WJ 

PASTOR OF THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, MATTAPOISETT, MASS. 



ARSONS, A. M., 




Lest Satan should get an advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices. 

2 Cor. 2: 11. 
And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. Mom. 16 : 20. 



BOSTON: 
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. 

1864. 



J> 






*l 



Entered, according to Aet of Congress, in the year 1863, by 

WILLIAM L. PARSONS, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



i^r^ 3 



ELECTROTYPED AND PRINTED 
BY THE BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY. 



PREFACE. 



To comprehend the forces which resist one's 
progress in any right direction, is a most important 
study — an essential condition of success. To know 
our enemy, — how, when, where, and with what 
weapons he will attack us, — goes far to insure a 
victory. 

This principle applies, in all its force, in spiritual 
matters. We have, in the Christian warfare, relent- 
less and most artful foes to contend with ; and, if we 
would not w beat the air," and be shamefully driven 
from the field, we must know our enemy, in his 
tactics and in his defenses, and how we may 
effectually use against him those weapons which are 
w mighty through God to the pulling down of strong- 
holds." A successful reconnoissance of the foe is 
half the battle. 

If this volume has any merit, it lies, in the 
author's judgment, in this s that it brings the 

cm) 



IV PREFACE. 






opposing forces which are at work, on the one 
hand, to destroy, and, on the other, to save the soul, 
into an open field, face to face ; that it exposes the 
enemy at his work of death, so that he can be seen 
and understood, and so that the powers of the 
gospel may be intelligently and effectually brought to 
bear against him, till the "prey of the terrible shall 
be delivered." 

The work aims to be a sort of "hand-book" for all 
who would " fight the good fight of faith," whether 
they have or have not, yet entered upon the duty ; 
whether they are in the infancy or childhood of the 
spiritual life, or whether they have made the highest 
attainments known among the saints. It seeks to 
meet the wants of men of all denominations, or of 
none, who hope to reach heaven through the redemp- 
tion of Christ ; to make the way clear from Egypt to 
the Land of Promise ; and to show how to enter the 
land and gather its precious fruits. The things it 
attempts to present are as needful to be known, and 
well known, both to the Christian and to him who 
would be such, as the fundamental rules of arith- 
metic, to the mathematician. 



PREFACE. V 

The chapter on the subject of Sanctification aims 
to give a more complete and satisfactory view than 
would easily be gained from writers who have pre- 
sented only some specific phases of that doctrine. 
The author entertains the hope that he has presented 
it from a stand-point from which all Christians will 
be able to see eye to eye, in respect to it, and to be 
quickened to lay hold of "the fullness of the blessing 
of the gospel of Christ." The chapter contains, in 
its last section, some applications of principles which 
may afford some light to the popular mind, on cer- 
tain vexed questions in theology. 

Various "pastor's sketches" are introduced, which, 
it is hoped, will make clear some of the more essen- 
tial and difficult points, and help to fix them in the 
memory. 

The work contains no learned disquisitions con- 
cerning the existence or nature of Satan. Its object 
is entirely practical, and its teachings will be found 
scarcely less important to those who deny, than to 
those who admit, his personal existence. The author 
has followed the simple method of the Bible, and has 
felt authorized, wherever lie has found lies doing 

1* 



VI PREFACE. 

their fatal work, to charge their fatherhood upon 
Satan ; and so on, through all the catalogue of abom- 
inations ascribed to him in the Scriptures. 

It is needless to say that nothing is claimed for the 
work as a mere literary performance. The object 
of the writer has been to communicate, in a simple 
way, a kind of instruction, the great need of which 
in the churches, his own ministry — spent some- 
what largely in revivals of religion — has made him 
deeply and painfully feel. 

The author would be most happy to have each 
of its readers regard the work as affectionately 
dedicated to himself, and to have it read with that 
peculiar interest which is awakened by a conscious 
personal friendship existing between author and 
reader. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Chapter I. Introductory. — The Case stated. — Its Appli- 
cation to those who do and those who do not profess 
Christianity 11 

Chapter II. Personal Existence of Satan. — Bible View 

presented. — Objections answered 15 

Chapter III. Character of Satan 21 

Chapter IV. The Battle Field surveyed. — The Human 

Mind and its Principles of Action 24 

Chapter V. What must be Satan's Methods of Working, 
as indicated by the Changeless Laws of our Mental and 
Moral Constitutions 33 

Chapter VI. Primary Importance to the Christian Life of 
the Right Adjustment of the Will to the Truth, illus- 
trated by a "Pastor's Sketch." 37 

Chapter VII. Satan, the " Author and Finisher " of Un- 
belief. 44 

Chapter VIII. Satan, in the Height of his Power, obscur- 
ing the Essential Object of Faith, Christ Jesus the Lord; 
thus rendering impossible the Exercise of a Living 
Faith 48 

Chapter IX. Satan's Second Eclipse of the Object of Faith 
— hiding also the Deity of the Spirit, and for a Like 
Purpose 55 

(7) 



8 CONTENTS. 

Chapter X. The Mischiefs Satan accomplishes by removing 
from before the Eye of Faith the Godhead of Christ and 
the Spirit. . 60 

Chapter XL Satan, sowing Tares. — Pastor's Sketch illus- 
trating the Necessity of having the Right Seed- Truth 
sown in the Heart, that a True Christian Character may 
grow therefrom 64 

Chapter XII. Satan, as the Father of Lies. — Principles 
premised. 1. His Object is to destroy the Soul. 2. Lies 
received are held as Truths, and thus they have all the 
Binding Force of Truth and all the Damaging Effect 
of Lies. 3. They exclude Corresponding Truths from 
the Mind. 4. To receive them Involves an Impeachment 
of the Divine Character. 5. They are anchored pri- 
marily in the Sensibility ; not in the Reason. 6. They 
are adapted to meet the Idiosyncrasies and Prejudices of 
Men. 7. Language is not required to express them. 
8. When thoroughly lodged in the Mind, it is difficult, 
and often impossible, to remove them 70 

Chapter XIII. The Lies whereby Satan keeps Men from 

becoming Christians 74 

Chapter XIV. The Lies by which Satan aims to weaken 

and waste the Inner Life of Christians 86 

Chapter XV. The Fiery Darts of the Wicked One, illus- 
trated by a Sketch of a Remarkable Case 101 

Chapter XVI. Satan, as the " Accuser of the Brethren." . 108 

Chapter XVH. Wherein Satan is considered as the Tempter. 113 

Chapter XVIII. Wherein appears the Christian's Deliverer. 

— Method of Victory shown 121 

Chapter XIX. Satan, as transformed into an Angel of 

Light. — Pastor's Sketches 132 



CONTENTS. 9 

Chapter XX. How to distinguish between Satan, so trans- 
formed into an Angel of Light, and Christ, the True 
Angel and Messenger of God, whom Satan counterfeits. 146 

Chapter XXL Satanic Plots. — Pastor's Sketch. ... 159 

Chapter XXII. Satan, the Enemy of Prayer and Vital 

Communion with God 168 

Chapter XXIII. Satan, as Philosopher, Theologian, and 

Logician 180 

Chapter XXIV. The Allies of Satan 201 

Chapter XXV. Satan, the Foe of our Sanctification and 

Growth in Grace 209 

Section 1. Theories of the Different Schools con- 
sidered, and shown to differ only in Speculative, not 
Essential Points 210 

Section 2. All Attainments in the Divine Life the 
Result of knowing God in the Heart 213 

Section 3. This Knowledge the Exclusive Gift of the 
Spirit — its Positive and Assuring Nature 218 

Section 4. Conditions of receiving this Life-giving 
Knowledge of God. — A Theological Difficulty met. . 223 

Section 5. The Relations of Revealed Truth to our 
Growing Sanctification 226 

Section 6. The Relation between knowing God by the 
Spirit, and the Enjoyment of the Life of Holiness. . . 228 

Section 7. The Natural and Life-giving Effect upon 
the Mind of knowing, from Heaven, certain Definite 
Things concerning God and ourselves — concerning his 
Relations to us and ours to him 229 

Section 8. The Law of Progress in this Divine, Saving 
Knowledge; with a Sketch illustrating the Spirit's 
Method. — The "Higher Christian Life" explained. . 241 

Section 9. What may we reasonably hope to attain 
in this Life, in Respect to the State, (1.) Of the Will ; 



10 CONTENTS. 

(2.) Of the Intellect; (3.) Of the Sensibility ; — or in the 
Matter of Purpose, Knowledge, and Emotion ? . . . 251 

Section 10. The Relation of Faith to the Obtaining of 
this Saving Knowledge of God 259 

Section 11. The Duty of Living in the Victorious 
Enjoyment of this Life-sustaining Knowledge of God. 261 

Section 12. The Guilt of being without this Knowl- 
edge and its Saving Power 264 

Section 13. The General View here presented, con- 
firmed by its Pow T er to harmonize the apparently Con- 
flicting Views of the Different Schools of Evangelical 
Christians, and to simplify certain Vexed Questions in 
Theology 267 

Chapter XXVI. Satan's Methods of Opposing the Chris- 
tian's Sanctification 281 

Chapter XXVII. Satan's Efforts to Cripple the Ministers of 

the Gospel, and render their Preaching powerless. . . 294 

Chapter XXVIII. The Great Fight with and Victory over 

Satan ; with a Pastor's Sketch of the Battle Scene. . . 302 



SATAN'S DEYICES 



AND 



THE BELIEVEK'S VICTOKY. 



CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTORY. — THE CASE STATED. — ITS APPLICATION TO 
THOSE WHO DO AND THOSE WHO DO NOT PROFESS CHRIS- 
TIANITY. 

Prove all things ; hold fast that which is good. — 1 TJiess. 5 : 21. 

If the numerous engines which daily leave the 
depot of any of our great central railroads, after pro- 
ceeding a short distance, should run from the track, 
causing great loss of property and life ; if, on coming 
to a moderate up-grade, they should fail to draw the 
trains ; if their movements were spasmodic, some- 
times violent, and, as frequently almost suspended ; 
if they exhibited a strange propensity to leave the 
rails and make for the carriage road; if, in short, 
they failed to obey the will of the engineer, — the 
causes of such perverted action would be forthwith 

searched out and removed. 

li 



12 satan's devices and 

It evidently does come to pass, that many who are 
hopefully converted to Christ, soon after leaving the 
depot for their heavenly destination, do strangely 
leave the track ; they fail on the up-grades of duty ; 
their movements are irregular ; the wheels of their 
faith slip on the rails of promise ; they do not 
promptly obey the will of the Divine Engineer. It 
is the sore grief of the ministry and church, and the 
general complaint and stumbling-block of the world, 
that professed Christians fall so far below the stan- 
dard of character presented in the Bible — that they 
so manifestly fail in running the Christian race. 
Christ proclaims liberty, and yet many of his people 
are slaves to the world and their lusts. The gospel 
professes to open fountains in the desert, and rivers 
in dry places ; and yet we fail to find "the rivers, 
the floods, the brooks of honey and butter," of which 
Zophar the Naamathite writes (Job 20:17), and 
drink, instead, at those transient streams of which 
Job himself speaks, which dry up and vanish when 
the heat comes, and go to nothing (6 : 15-18). We 
lack the "tongue of fire," the baptism of the Spirit, 
"the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ." 
And the worst of all is, that the church is extensively 
paralyzed with the fatal idea that this state of bondage 
and spiritual weakness is practically incurable ; and, 
as the inevitable consequence, men abandon them- 
selves to a current of most unsatisfactory and bewil- 
dering experiences. 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 13 

The subject has its application to unconverted men. 
They know they are involved in sin, and must be 
redeemed from it or be lost. The only way to 
heaven is over the highway of holiness (Isa. 35 : 
8-10), which the Lord has ordered to be graded 
(Isa. 62 : 10) , for his ransomed to pass over. They 
see, with somewhat distorted vision, the failures and 
inconsistencies of Christians, and therefore reject the 
only possible way of salvation — that provided by the 
atonement of Christ. They are not going to commit 
the ridiculous figure of running from the track, or of 
failing on the up-grades of temptation, and so pro- 
pose to reach the heavenly destination without pass- 
ing over the only road which leads thither. 

The majority of professed Christians are evidently 
in such bondage that they can not use their powers in 
the service of Christ with the same happy freedom 
and efficiency which they exhibit in the affairs of 
every day life ; they are little less than prisoners of 
war ; and the mass of unconverted men look upon the 
whole subject of experimental Christianity as in- 
volved in a mystery they can not understand, and 
therefore dismiss it as having no valid claims upon 
them. 

Here is a state of things which ought not to exist. 
In its production, we believe Satan has a most subtle 
agency and a prodigious power. There are many, 
who, in general, admit this, but who do not see 
clearly how he accomplishes his malignant purposes. 
2 



14 satan's devices and 

They have little hope of being able to understand his 
methods so as to escape his devices ; and their state 
of mind amounts to a surrender to the adversary. 
To many others, not a few in the churches probably, 
Satan is a myth ; and such he leads " captive at his 
will" with scarce an attempt, on their part, at 
resistance. 

We believe this great enemy of God and of man 
can be successfully exposed, so that men may escape 
his ruinous devices. This is the work we shall 
attempt in the following chapters. 

Satan, as the grand disorganizer of the f? system 
of the universe," we will leave to Dr. Edward 
Beecher, aiming only to expose those malignant 
processes by which he seeks to destroy the individ- 
ual soul. 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 15 



CHAPTER II. 

PERSONAL EXISTENCE OF SATAN. — BIBLE VIEW PRESENTED. 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 

And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil and 
Satan, which deceiveth the whole world ; he was cast out into the earth, and 
his angels were cast out with him.— .Rev. 12 : 9. 

As to the origin of Satan, the Scriptures give us 
no extended account. We have the testimony of 
Peter (2 Pet. 2:4), that certain of the angels of 
God sinned, and were cast down from heaven, and 
delivered into chains of darkness to be reserved unto 
judgment, when they are to be finally doomed to the 
lake of fire. This company of fallen spirits are rep- 
resented as in the earth, moving up and down among 
its inhabitants to deceive men and destroy their souls. 
Their chief is revealed in the Bible by a great variety 
of names, which imply his personal existence. He is 
often called Satan, which means an enemy or adver- 
sary; the Devil, from a Greek word meaning to 
calumniate ; or from two words signifying without 
light, making this name nearly synonymous with 
w Prince of darkness;" the Father of lies, which, in 
some sense, implies that all the falsehoods ever 
devised in the world are of his coining ; a murderer, 
which indicates his agency in every murder since the 



16 



days of Cain ; the Tempter ; Beelzebub ; the Accuser 
of the brethren ; the God and Prince of this world ; 
Lucifer ; Serpent ; Tormentor ; Roaring lion ; in 
Hebrew, Abaddon ; in Greek, Apollyon, meaning 
destroyer. Such are some of the names by which 
the Scriptures designate the being of whom we write. 

Satan thus stands out upon the inspired page as a 
personal being, a conscious, emotional, voluntary 
individuality, as much so as Paul or Christ. Arch- 
bishop Whately could employ his genius to discredit 
the personal existence of Satan no more successfully 
than he did to disprove that of Napoleon. The Bible 
every where treats him as a great commanding, 
ruling, and powerful spirit. Christ was accused of 
casting out devils by Beelzebub, the chief of the 
devils (Luke 11 : 15). The supremacy of Satan 
among fallen spirits is recognized whenever they are 
classed together as "the devil and his angels." He 
is represented as the "god of this world," ruling it 
as a sovereign to the extent of his power. Christ 
recognized the leadership of Satan, and the unity of 
his subjects under his control, when he said, w If 
Satan be divided against himself, how shall his king- 
dom stand ? " 

Nor need we generalize away this fact by suppos- 
ing Satan to be a name for bad spirits in general. 
The first necessity of a vast society of evil spirits is 
a leader, a chief around whom they may organize, 
and through whose one will they may express and 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 17 

enforce their combined power of evil. There may be 
organized unity in hell as well as in heaven. 

Why, then, should men hesitate to admit the exist- 
ence of a personal devil ? The universe is vast ; its 
populations are various and numerous. Bad men 
exist ; why not bad spirits ? And if they exist, why 
may they not exert their malign influence in this 
world as well as elsewhere? 

The various objections to Satan's personal exist- 
ence may be reduced to this one — the difficulty 
there is in seeing how a finite being can be every 
where, and with every body, carrying on his pro- 
cesses of temptation at the same time. 

There are several not unreasonable suppositions 
which may help to remove this difficulty, and dis- 
pose of the objections which grow out of it. 

It may be that evil spirits are sufficiently numer- 
ous to supply each of the inhabitants of our world 
with such an attendant, or even with a legion of 
them. 

The so-called clairvoyant power may help to illus- 
trate the facility with which spiritual beings are able 
to read men's thoughts at a great distance. The 
ability to read them may be a power also to influence 
them. We know not how great and how varied may 
be the agency of disembodied spirits. 

Satan's power of locomotion may help to account 
for his seeming omnipresence. Even our vast 
material sun, with its attendant worlds, is proved by 
2* 



18 satan's devices and 

astronomy to rush through space at the rate of fifty- 
seven miles in a second. If Satan, with his ethereal 
vehicle, should make no better time than this, he 
could go round our globe in less than an hour and a 
quarter. Light travels at the rate of 200,000 miles 
in a second ; and if Satan were able to ride on sun- 
beams, he would go four times round the earth and 
back again in a single minute. Shakspeare's imagi- 
nation was too slow when he allowed one of his 
ethereal spirits forty minutes to w put a girdle round 
the earth." Electricity moves still quicker than 
light; and if there be any thing in the realm of 
spirits answering to our telegraph, and should Satan 
prove to be an fr operator " there, he can remain at 
his imperial palace in Pandemonium, and send his 
dispatches with a terrible rapidity whithersoever and 
to whomsoever he will. 

And again, if, in the realm of spirits, as the poets 
sing and the philosophers say, wishes are wings, we 
may dismiss all objection to Satan's existence 
and influence in the world, founded on the ideas of 
time and space. 

And it may be further said, that the constant 
presence of Satan with the souls of men may not be 
necessary to the accomplishment of his purposes. 
" Going to and fro in the earth, and walking up and 
down in it," he may lodge some of his seed-lies in a 
man's mind in early life, and leave them to bring 
forth their bitter, inevitable fruit. He can give the 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 19 

lie a contagion which will make it catch from mind to 
mind, as, in a great conflagration, the flames fly from 
roof to roof till a whole city is in ashes. He can 
leave the delusion to work on through the organic 
relations of the family and of society, from generation 
to generation, with very little subsequent agency of 
his own. 

If it be said that there is "no other devil than 
man's wicked heart," how then shall we account for 
the temptations of Christ ? Had he a wicked heart 
to be his tempter? 

It is impossible to harmonize the Bible with the 
denial of Satan's personality. Nor is any thing 
gained by denying it. To believe a lie has the same 
ruinous effect, whether the authorship of it is with 
Satan or ourselves. If Satan were to be regarded 
as only an impersonation of man's wickedness, so 
that each man is, after all, his own Beelzebub, his 
own father of lies, his own tempting, tormenting, 
and destroying angel, this would not help the mat- 
ter. It would be no easier to exorcise this self-devil 
than to escape the influence of a separate, personal 
tempter. On the other hand, to know that Satan 
exists, and that he seeks our ruin, is to guard the 
mind against him; and to know what his lies are, 
unless we are so wicked as to prefer falsehood to 
truth, is to dissolve their power over us. 

No doubt Satan, considering the end he has in 
view, would gladly persuade us to ignore his person- 



20 SATAN'S DEVICES AND 

ality, and to account his agency as our own. This 
device would enable him to work on unsuspected, and 
the influence of his lies would not be hindered by his 
own bad personal reputation. 



THE BELIEVEK'S YICTOKY. 21 



CHAPTER III. 



CHARACTER OF SATAN. 



He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because 
there is no truth in him. —John 8 : 44. 

Satan is a moral being, and must have character, 
good or bad. He is no neuter. 

So far as his names are significant, they show him 
to be wholly wicked. Being the Father of lies, 
being the Enemy of God and man, surely there can 
be no virtue in him ; he is without a redeeming trait. 
Although he may retain something of the dignity 
which belongs to great powers of mind, and may be, 

by such 

"merit, raised 

To that bad eminence " 

which Milton awards him, yet the Scriptures no- 
where represent him as exhibiting any of that natural 
goodness, that generosity, candor, forbearance, or 
humanity, which, in mankind, often co-exists with 
great moral depravity. 

Satan has set himself to thwart the will of God 
against which he has revolted, and devoted all his 
powers to the execution of his dire purpose. He 
seeks to subvert men from their allegiance to God, 



22 satan's devices and 

and to lead them captive at his will. He is contend- 
ing for the moral supremacy of the race. God claims 
it ; Satan has usurped it, and will, to the bitter end, 
struggle to maintain it. God requires all moral 
agents to make the well-being of all the supreme 
object of choice and pursuit. This is right and holy ; 
and the divinely secured result is heaven. The doc- 
trine of Satan is, that each moral agent shall make 
his own individual well-being the object of supreme 
choice and effort. This is wrong ; it is treason 
against God, and rebellion against the whole order 
and nature of things ; and its fixed result is hell. 

The wickedness of Satan appears in the fact, that 
the great object of the incarnation was M to destroy 
the works of the devil" (1 John 3 : 8), and to lib- 
erate man from his bondage (Heb. 2:4). It is 
shown by the fact, also, that the apostolic commis- 
sion was "to turn men from Satan unto God, that 
they might receive forgiveness of sins " (Acts 26 : 
15-18). His character is seen, also, in the fact that 
the saints are solemnly summoned to put on the 
whole armor of God, that they may successfully 
wrestle with the devil, and stand against his wiles 
(Eph. 6: 11-20). 

The Bible represents Satan as engaged in all forms 
of evil, and among all generations of men. He 
seduced Eve into eating the forbidden fruit. He 
tempted Cain to kill his brother, and thus made him- 
self "a murderer from the beginning." He perse- 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 23 

cuted Job in the earliest age of the race. He put it 
into the heart of David to number the people, and 
of Judas to betray Christ, and of Ananias to lie unto 
the Holy Ghost. He did his utmost to foil the Son 
of God himself. 

We see the character of Satan, moreover, in the 
means he uses to accomplish his ends. Utterly 
unscrupulous, he puts light for darkness, and dark- 
ness for light, and thus confounds the fundamental 
principles of morals. Infinite Truth is, at his bid- 
ding, betrayed to the mob of passions, mocked, 
scourged, nailed to the cross, and her tomb guarded 
to prevent resurrection. He attacks the babe in its 
cradle, and puts lies on infant tongues wherewith to 
lead them astray from their birth. To play the wolf 
among the lambs of Christ's flock, is his special 
delight. He is serpent, wolf, lion, and adder, all in 
one. He must know full well that the supreme self- 
ishness into which he leads men to plunge them- 
selves, carries in it all crime, all war, all disorder, 
woe, and ruin ; and yet, malignantly and remorse- 
lessly, he persists in his course. 

Satan's wickedness is all his own, and is as great 
as he can make it. The greatness of his sin in 
tempting, does not, however, diminish that of men 
in yielding to his wicked solicitations. Our adver- 
sary can not lead us astray without our own consent. 



24 satan's devices and 



CHAPTEE IV. 

THE BATTLE FIELD SURVEYED. — THE HUMAN MIND AND 
ITS PRINCIPLES OF ACTION. 

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him. 
— Gen. 1 : 27. 

If we would be victorious in the warfare to which 
we are called against the powers of darkness, we 
can not too well know the field of contest, the human 
mind, whereon the struggle centers. 

As to our mental constitutions, we are "made in 
the image of God." Our powers are like his in kind, 
though not in reach. They qualify us "to reason 
with him" (Isa. 1:18; Ezek. 18:25), to test his 
truth (1 Thess. 5: 21), to understand his will, to 
know and choose between the right and wrong, to 
sympathize with and be " like him " in character ; in 
short, to know, love, and obey*him, and, in our 
measure, to live the same moral life which he lives. 

The various powers of the mind, like those of the 
natural universe, sustain important and changeless 
relations to each other, which need to be understood. 

Satan, doubtless, aims to secure the false and 
wicked action of our minds, both toward God and 
man. We need, therefore, to survey the ground, 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 25 

and learn where the enemy will wheel his columns, 
and where he will plant his artillery ; how he will 
shield himself from our weapons ; how construct his 
plots and manage his surprises ; and how he will 
fortify himself, and render his position, if possible, 
unassailable. We must study the field, also, that we 
may know where are our own " strongholds," w T here 
the "munition of rocks," where the "hiding place 
from the wind and a covert from the tempest," and 
where we may make a sure stand against the foe. 
Other things being equal, the army which best knows 
the field gains the victory. And we must know the 
field before we fight; the reporters can study and 
describe it after the battle. 

We make no apology for asking here the reader's 
special attention. 

The Mind's Powers. 

Of these there are three, a trinity, which are fun- 
damental — a knowing power, a feeling power, an 
acting power. We know, we feel, we act. We 
have thought, we have emotion, we have volition. 
The names of these powers are, the Intellect, the 
Sensibility, the Will. 

Our knowing faculty, the intellect, is a power to 
know a great variety of things, and with different de- 
grees and kinds of knowledge. Some things we know 
positively and beyond all doubt, as, for instance, the 
3 



26 SATAN'S DEVICES AXD 

axioms in mathematics. So we know such moral 
axioms as these : " every event must have a cause ; " 
"right and wrong are moral opposites," the one 
deserving praise, the other blame; "virtue ought to 
be loved and vice hated." The intellect see's the 
truth of such things directly, without any reasoning, 
and knows them with a certainty which can not be 
diminished nor increased. 

Other things we know by evidence which comes to 
us from without ; and we know them, confidently or 
only probably, according to the evidence we gain. 
Some of the things we know are only the possibilities 
pictured by the imagination ; some are conclusions of 
the judgment; some arc only sensations made upon 
us by external objects through the senses ; some are 
only reflections awakened by these sensations ; some 
are the records upon the tablets of the memory. 
The philosophers classify the knowing department 
of the mind according to these different forms and 
degrees of knowledge which the intellect gives us. 

Through the emotional department of our minds 
we are the subjects of a great variety of experiences. 
Innumerable feelings throng the sensibility. In this 
faculty we may have the rapture of heaven or the 
rolling sea of hell. Love, joy, purity, and all asso- 
ciated graces here give us their blessing; and here 
also envy, jealousy, revenge, and kindred passions 
kindle their lurid flames. 

The will is the executive department of our being, 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 27 

and its capacity is wonderful. We can not will the 
light into existence, as God did when he said, " Let 
there be light," but we can will it to shine through 
our lenses, and engrave our pictures, or reveal to us 
other worlds innumerable, both above and below the 
reach of the naked eye. We can not will matter into 
existence, but we can will it into such forms as we 
please ; we can level the mountains and fill the 
valleys, and turn the wilderness into a fruitful field. 
We can not create the forces of the natural world, 
but we can harness them to our chariots and make 
them do our bidding. We can not create the dis- 
tinction between good and evil, right and wrong, but 
we can will to do the one and to reject the other. 
We can not swerve the will of God in the least, but 
we can will our own subordination to it, and so be at 
one with the Most High. 

Some of the Laws of Mind. 

1. The intellect is under the law of necessity. 
When certain conditions are fulfilled, to know is 
unavoidable. If your open eye is upturned to the 
unclouded sun, you can not help knowing that it 
shines. Our agency in gaining knowledge lies in the 
power which the will has to direct the attention of 
the knowing faculty. We can use that in whatever 
way we please. 

The agency of the will over the intellect has its 



28 Satan's devices and 

limitations. The knowledge of good and evil is ir 
the mind independently of the will. So of all first 
truths. The will can not exclude them. Men have 
their senses open, and the world without teems w T ith 
thought which it offers to the mind of man ; and 
much knowledge, therefore, enters the intellect with- 
out any apparent agency of the will. But all knowl- 
edge, so falling in upon the mind involuntarily, as 
well as that which is gained by the voluntary appli- 
cation of the intellect, and that which inheres in the 
reason itself, constitutes so much material which the 
will is free to use for a right purpose or a wrong 
one. God holds us responsible to use it as the moral 
law prescribes. 

2. The same law of necessity pertains to the sensi- 
bility. It has no power of choice in itself. If you 
put your hand in the flame, the sensation of pain is 
inevitable. The emotions will correspond to the 
objects before the mind. It does not follow that the 
emotions of all persons will be alike in view of the 
same objects, for there are constitutional differences 
in this power as well as in other faculties of the mind, 
and in the bodily senses. Nevertheless, all the control 
we can have of the sensibility, we have through the 
will. 

3. The law of the will is freedom, not necessity. 
Not that the will is free in the sense that you can 
avoid choosing. Choose you must, one way or the 
other, between good and evil. Life and death are 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 29 

set before us, and not to choose the one is to take the 
other. But, between the two, the good and the evil, 
the right and the wrong, we are, in the very consti- 
tution of the will, endowed with the power and 
liberty of choice. Here is our moral sovereignty; 
and on this sublime prerogative, which makes us 
men, all our responsibility hinges. 

This freedom we know we have as an essential 
attribute of our being. The thief who stole your 
purse knew he could as freely let it alone as take it. 
Of this he was as conscious as he was of his existence, 
or of the wickedness of taking it. The freedom of 
the will, in the sense defined, is known by the highest 
possible evidence. It is divinely certified to us 
through our own consciousness. We debate with 
ourselves whether we shall do this or that, because 
we know we have the power to choose between them. 
We hold ourselves and others responsible on the 
same ground. There ought to be no difference in 
opinion on this question among men, as there is 
none in practice. 

If it be said that we can not choose in the entire 
absence of motives, I admit it. Nor are we required 
to do so. The law of right is in the reason, and life 
and death are there so set before us, that it is impos- 
sible to plead the absence of motive. In a subse- 
quent chapter, we hope to show the truth in the 
apparently opposite theories of freedom and necessity, 
and their harmony with each other. 
3* 



30 SATAN'S DEVICES AXD 

4. The free will has a law of generic action. One 
great choice involves many subordinate ones. We 
form a purpose to build a house, and in this choice 
there will be a multitude of minor volitions which 
are required to carry it into execution. A tree has 
a number of large branches, a greater number of 
limbs, and a still greater number of leaves ; and the 
life of the tree comes up from the roots, and diffuses 
itself through, and works in all parts of it. Now, the 
comprehensive purpose or end for which we have 
chosen to live, whether it be to please ourselves on 
the one hand, or God on the other, so far as we have 
learned to be consistent, will diffuse itself through, 
and work in all departments of our being, like the 
life of the tree. The current of that purpose, if it be 
the one our Savior requires, will carry in it the 
grace and blessing of God, and every fiber of our 
moral being will be refreshed and will grow by it, as 
every part of the tree grows by means of the life 
current which circulates through it from root to leaf. 
It will carry the divine life to all the powers of our 
minds, and set them vibrating in harmony with the 
will of Heaven. Our characters are as the one <rreat 
comprehensive choice or end for the accomplishment 
of which we live ; for that infolds all the rest. If 
your great end be right, and you remain true to that, 
your life, in all its details, will be well pleasing to 
God. 

5. It is a law of the mind to form its purposes and 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 31 

to retain them in view of motives or reasons. These 
are of two general classes — good and evil, right and 
wrong. We are constituted so as to be able to dis- 
tinguish between the two. All the reasons there 
are in the universe in favor of right choice and con- 
duct, and against wrong, are so many motives to us 
to form and forever retain the right governing choice. 
All the reasons which God and angels have for recti- 
tude, we have. Three worlds are crowded with the 
weightiest motives to the right; and not one good 
reason can be found, in heaven, earth, or hell, for a 
selfish and sinful life. 

6. The mind, by all its laws and powers, is adapted 
to the right and true. Reason and conscience are on 
the side of God. The soul's deepest outcry is, w Who 
will show us any good? " and it refuses to be satisfied 
till it finds the good which God has provided for it in 
himself. It is in the mind to approve truth and 
justice, and to shrink from falsehood and wrong. 
We are made to appreciate and to be moved by all 
manifestations of order, beauty, and benevolence, 
and therefore to be drawn toward God by the exhi- 
bitions he is constantly giving to the world of all his 
perfections. It is not the fault of our constitutions, 
therefore, if we alienate ourselves from God, and 
destroy our souls. 

7. The relation of the mind's powers to each other 
is such and so intimate, that the misuse of one 
inflicts injury upon them all, just as, "when one 



32 satan's devices and 

member of the body suffers, all the members suffer 
with it." Pervert the conscience, pollute the sensi- 
bility, warp the judgment, and no man can estimate 
the mischievous consequences, both to the mind and 
the character. 

Conclusion. — The great problem of life must then 
be this : How to subordinate the will, and, so, the 
ivhole circle of mind-powers under its control, to the 
will of God, and hold it there against all the opposing 
influence of Satan and the world. 

"Hie labor, hoc opus est." Can it be done? It 
can, or the gospel is a lie, and the experience of 
Paul a delusion. To this end, God works in us and 
with us. Let us learn the way, let us see how to 
make use of the gospel as the very "power and 
wisdom of God " to this end, and the result shall be 
sure. 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 33 



CHAPTER V. 

WHAT MUST BE SATAN'S METHODS OF WORKING, AS INDI- 
CATED BY THE CHANGELESS LAWS OF OUR MENTAL AND 
MORAL CONSTITUTIONS. 

After the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders. — 
2 Tliess. 2 : 9. 

An old student of Mental and Moral Philosophy, 
Satan doubtless possesses great skill in influencing 
mind, and warping it into his service. From what 
has been said in the last chapter, we may learn some- 
thing of his methods of mischief. For, as we must 
adapt the machinery we would have driven by steam 
to the laws of steam, so Satan must fit his measures 
to the laws of the mind he seeks to control by them. 

The ultimate purpose of Satan will, of course, be 
to gain the control of the will, and to bring it into 
subjection to his own, instead of the divine will. 
If he carries that, he is master of the field. 

The will acts in view of motives. The leading 
object of the adversary will be that indicated in 2 Cor. 
4:3, 4 — to hide Christ, in whose character all right 
motives are seen in their greatest purity and power, 
from the mind's view, * lest the light of his glorious 
gospel should shine " home effectually upon the will, 
and fix it in its obedience to God. This would be 



34 satan's devices and 

a game of " cutting off supplies " from the soul, of 
starving the heart by robbing it of that bread which, 
alone, can satisfy its mighty hunger. It is an attempt 
to extinguish the soul's sunlight, and drive it back, 
and hold it in the night of sin — a work well befitting 
the Prince of Darkness. 

The adversary will next ply the mind with false- 
hood, setting before it lies instead of truth. He will 
dress them in the garb of truth, and render them as 
fascinating and persuasive as possible, thus luring 
men to destruction. 

He will, in various ways, seek to secure the adop- 
tion of a false general and reigning purpose ; one 
that will not, in truth, answer the demand of Chris- 
tianity ; one that will be just defective enough to ruin 
the soul, though, to appearance, it may be as fair as 
that of the men who sat in Moses' seat in the days 
of Christ. Too much caution can not be exercised 
here. 

A comprehensive and fearfully destructive measure 
of Satan will be to induce in men a perversion of the 
judgment and conscience. What vast ruin Satan 
brought upon the Jews by pushing them into the 
judgment that Christ was an impostor and a 
deceiver ! Love him, henceforth, they could not ; 
hate him they must. Xo thought, feeling, or purpose 
toward him could be otherwise than wrong. Their 
cry, "Crucify him, crucify him," was the natural 
sequence of their misjudgment of Christ. And so, 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 35 

universally, the wicked use of this faculty involves 
the most startling and mischievous consequences. 
When Saul of Tarsus had perverted his conscience, 
he could " breathe out threatenings and slaughter " in 
the name of the Most High ! 

Again : Satan will make it a strong point to satisfy 
men with a mere religion of the intellect or the sen- 
sibility, that he may thereby retain the control of the 
will. It would not be possible for him to extinguish 
the religious nature of man ; and probably he does 
not waste time in such an undertaking. The next 
thing would be to satisfy this religious nature with 
something short of God, with a religion of good 
thoughts, excellent principles, and even of truth in 
the letter; with a religion of good feelings, of warm 
desires for the crown of glory and the heavenly 
mansion — a religion which shall just fall short of 
enthroning God and his truth in the will. 

Again : Satan will do his utmost to throw the intel- 
lect into utter confusion and bewilderment on the whole 
subject of personal religion. There is no more effect- 
ual way to prevent the right action of the mind, 
than by involving it in such a state. Are not whole 
masses of men in just this condition? They know 
not what to believe, which way to turn. They are 
held in "chains of darkness," groping about in a 
moral confusion worse than chaos. 

Again : as the mind is made for enjoyment, and can 
not well live without it, Satan may be expected to 



36 satan's devices and 

promise pleasure in his service. He will invest 
worldliness with all possible charms, and render it as 
attractive as possible ; and on the other hand, will 
insist that religion is joyless and repulsive. By 
keeping men pleased with themselves and delighted 
with their sinful courses, he will retain the control of 
their wills. In the judgment of some philosophers, 
if Satan can give the sensibility the impression that 
the greatest good is to be found in a selfish life, then 
they can not help sinning. It is certain, by all phi- 
losophy, that Satan's strongest hold upon the mind 
lies in making sin appear as the greatest good — the 
greatest source of happiness. 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 37 



CHAPTER VI. 

PRIMARY IMPORTANCE TO THE CHRISTIAN LIFE OF THE 
RIGHT ADJUSTMENT OF THE WILL TO THE TRUTH, ILLUS- 
TRATED BY A "PASTOR'S SKETCH." 

Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth. — 1 Pet. 1 : 22. 

The right working of the will is to the Christian life 
what the right application of the power is to the 
movement of the machinery. Since all the other 
powers of the mind act under the leadership of the 
will, its subordination to the truth becomes the indis- 
pensable condition of all Christian growth and expe- 
rience. If it be in alliance with ideas which are 
false, the whole action of the mind must be wrong ; 
and the first thing to be done, cost what it may, is 
to dissolve that connection, and secure the firm com- 
mittal of the will to what is true. 

We wish here to draw special attention to a mental 
state — the adjustment of the will to truth or false- 
hood ; not so much now to the influence of truth or 
error, as to that state of the mind in which the one 
or the other becomes operative in the soul for good 
or evil. For this purpose, it is not material what 
the false idea which enslaves the will may be, and my 
object will be well enough served by using, as an 
illustration, the following " Pastor's Sketch : " — 
4 



38 satan's devices and 

A gentleman once called upon the writer, during a 
powerful work of the Spirit, for personal religious 
conversation. He had never made a profession of 
religion, nor was he known in the community as 
entertaining the Christian hope : yet he did secretly 
cherish the idea that he was a Christian. He was, 
however, ill at ease in his present state of mind, and 
wished to know how he might attain a more satisfac- 
tory assurance that he was indeed accepted of Christ. 
From his delineation of his case, it appeared that he 
found the word precious to his soul ; that he was in 
the habit of retiring alone for prayer, without even 
allowing his family to know the fact, and that he 
loved the sanctuary. He had but poorly learned the 
lessons of faith, and was much in bondage to the 
fear of man. His will had no such vigorous alliance 
to the truth as to make it to him the power and wisdom 
of God for his deliverance. Indeed, it was evidently 
enslaved to some false ideas which effectually held 
him in bondage. It was evident that a new adjust- 
ment of his voluntary powers was demanded, or his 
progress in the divine life was out of the question. 
Foreseeing the difficulty of dislodging the adversary 
and bringing his mind under Christ's sway, I resorted 
to the following method : I said to him, "I think I 
can make a suggestion which you would do well to 
follow." "And what is it?" he asked. "I can not 
tell you until you pledge yourself to do what I shall 
recommend." "But I dare not promise till I know 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 39 

what it is." " Why not? Can you not trust me that 
it will be all right? You have had confidence to 
come to me for advice. I am a minister of Christ, I 
hope, and shall only ask you to do what I most fully 
believe he would have you do." "But perhaps I 
can not do it." "And do you think I would ask you 
to do what you can not do? God forbid." "But it 
may not be proper for me to do it." " Would you, 
then, impeach my character by assuming that I would 
ask you, in the name of Christ, to do an improper 
thing?" "O, no, sir, I would not." "If, more- 
over, your conscience shall honestly forbid your 
doing what I shall propose, I will not then ask you 
to do it, nor even consent to your doing it." " Will 
you not tell me unless I promise ? " "I can not ; it 
would not be best; I want you should trust me. 
You do not expect' to know" all the will of God before 
you pledge him universal obedience : you trust him 
that his requirements will be right. I want you 
should trust me on the same principle." "Well, I 
will try to do it." "No, that is not what I want. 
Deciding to try to do a thing is often very different 
from deciding to do it. If I should ask you to lift a 
weight of three thousand pounds, you might well say 
you would try, through a suspicion that you could 
not lift it ; but if I ask you to lift a weight of ten 
pounds, your decision would not be to try, but to do 
it. God requires us to decide to obey him ; and if 
we merely decide to try to obey him, we shall only 



40 satan's devices and 

make a self-righteous use of our powers, and fail. 
Now, when you will decide to do the proposed thing, 
I will tell you." w You will not ask ine to do a hard 
thing?" O, no ; a very simple thing; I do it every 
day, and have great pleasure in it." " Well, well, I 
will do it" "Very well. What I propose is, that, 
this night, you erect a family altar in your house, and 
call your household about it, and with them worship 
God." "O, sir, I can not do that; I am sure I can 
not." " Certainly you can doit; I know you can." 
"It is right, I know. I have often felt the duty 
pressing heavily upon me, but I have as often sunk 
down under the conscious conviction that it was 
impossible for me to do it." "Now, let me show you 
your difficulty : your will is committed to the idea 
that you can not do it, and this binds your mind, 
and is the whole secret of your failure. But that 
idea is false ; it is a lie of the Devil. The truth is, 
you can pray in your family as well as elsewhere. 
You tongue will serve you there ; God will help you 
even more certainly at the family altar than else- 
where, for he loves to be honored there." "I wish 
I could do it." "You can, if you will drop the lie, 
and let your will adjust itself to what is true, and 
cling to that." " But I feel as if I could not possibly 
do it." "I know you feel so, but it is because you 
are holding a lie In your intellect, and that determines 
the feeling ; cast out the falsehood, and take hold of 
the truth, and you will not fail." At length the lie 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 41 

V 

was wrested from its dominion over the will, and the 
truth took its place. The remainder of the day was 
delightfully spent, in the quiet confidence that he 
had substantially secured the victory, which would be 
completely achieved in the evening. Returning from 
meeting that night, as he was entering his yard, his 
joys forsook him, and his soul seemed overwhelmed 
in darkness ; and then the feeling that he could 
not erect that altar pressed him to the earth. But 
he remembered his promise, and the instruction he 
had received. He called the promises of God to 
his aid. He remembered that He was personally near 
who had said, w My grace is sufficient for thee," 
who had bidden a man stretch forth his withered 
arm; and, although his depression was terrible, he 
insisted that he could and would fulfill his vow. He 
called his family together, and established his altar. 
The spell was broken ; the lie was now effectually 
dethroned, and the truth brought him victory. He 
could pray in his family as easily as in his closet. 
The principle is universal. If the will be adjusted 
to falsehood, the whole mind is so far enslaved 
and corrupted ; if to truth, all the powers work in 
liberty and righteousness. The gospel of Christ is 
indeed the power and wisdom of God unto salvation, 
but only when the will, by the grace of God, is 
properly adjusted to it. The most essential and 
fundamental of all conditions of salvation is, there- 
fore, that the will, by faith, grasp the truth in Christ, 
4 * 



42 SATAN'S DEVICES AND 

* 

and Christ in the truth, — for he is " the way, the truth, 
and the life," — and hold it fast, even unto the death. 
For the want of this proper adjustment, the whole 
gospel, including the promises of Christ and the 
ministry of the spirit, is rendered completely inoper- 
ative. Thousands in our churches have committed 
their wills to the idea that they can not pray in their 
families ; and the very altar which stands nearest to 
God is banished from their dwellings, and innumera- 
ble households sit in darkness. By the same sort of 
misadjustment, multitudes are kept from confessing 
Christ ; and a large number in our churches are 
utterly powerless for any spiritual and eflFective 
service in the great work of salvation. The helm of 
their being is in the hands of the foe. All divine 
help is lost to the soul because the mental machinery — 
so to speak — is not properly connected with the great 
wheel of God's truth, in whose ceaseless rotations lies 
the power by which alone salvation is given to the 
world. 

The intellect may be so adjusted to the truth that 
a man may be perfectly orthodox in sentiment ; the 
sensibility may be so related to the truth, that the 
prophet of God shall be to the soul " as a very lovely 
song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play 
well on an instrument," yet if the will be not linked 
to the word of life, all is lost. This, Satan under- 
stands full well, and acts accordingly. 

All the dishonesty, deceit, covetousness, party 






THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 43 

spirit, and whatever else of sin and selfishness there 
is in the church and world, results simply from the 
voluntary alliance of men's wills with false and con- 
flicting ideas. For the same reason, men find the 
exercise of the benevolence which Christ requires a 
distasteful duty rather than a blessed luxury, and 
the performance of religious services both unwelcome 
and unsatisfying. 

To introduce the millennium, and fill the world 
with the peace of God, it is only necessary that this 
ruinous allegiance should be broken up, and that the 
wills of men should be indissolubly linked to the 
simple truth as it is in Jesus Christ. And all the 
sweet influences which flow down from the heart of 
the Father, and all the healing mercies which radiate 
from the throne of the heavenly grace, and which are 
borne to the very door of our inner being by the 
Eternal Spirit, are designed to secure and cement this 
glorious union of the soul to Him who is the source 
of all life and glory to fallen man. Only as this 
result is attained can we be such Christians as our 
own happiness, the age in which we live, and the 
Bible demand we should be. It is one of the unac- 
countable mysteries of sin, that the human heart 
should rebel against such a heavenly and blessed 
consummation. 



44 satan's devices and 



CHAPTER VII. 

SATAN THE "AUTHOR AND FINISHER" OF UNBELIEF. 

Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in 
departing from the living God. — Heb. 3 : 12. 

The Scriptures teach that salvation is by faith 
alone. "He that believeth shall be saved. " "He 
that believeth not shall be damned." "Whatsoever 
is not of faith is sin." "This is the work of God, 
that ye believe on Him whom he hath sent.' , Christ 
is the " author and finisher of faith ; " the adversary, 
in a similar sense, doubtless, is the inspirer of unbe- 
lief. In order to understand Satan's power of evil 
in this capacity, we need a distinct conception of 
what are the elements of faith and unbelief. 

Faith, then, implies an object. Without this, 
there is nothing on which the mind can repose its 
confidence, and faith will be naturally impossible. 
This object must be revealed to the mind, the intel- 
lect must see it, or faith can not be. To trust in a 
person of whom you have no knowledge is impos- 
sible. Nor would it help me to trust in you, reader, 
to have some one else bear testimony to me con- 
cerning you. Do you say that, "on the testimony 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 45 

of A, whom I know, to the reliability of B, I 
trust my life in the keeping of the latter?" But 
your trust is really in A, not in B, although you 
have put yourself in his hands. Suppose, before 
B is personally known to you, you find that you 
have entirely misunderstood A, who meant to as-' 
sure you that B was wholly untrustworthy. You 
would then see that your confidence rested in A, 
and not in B. Your trust must repose in the 
witness alone, until the third party becomes person- 
ally known to you : then it can pass over and rest in 
him, if he be found worthy. 

Again : the object of faith so presented to the 
mind must be closed in with by the ivill. To see the 
truth and enthrone it as the law of our voluntary 
being, is to believe unto life. To see the truth, 
approve it with the reason, and to refuse, by the 
soul's voluntary act or state, to enthrone it as our 
law of life and conduct, is to be guilty of fatal unbe- 
lief. The voluntary element, or the want of it, in 
our faith, makes all the difference between a living 
and a dead faith — between a religion of forms and 
one of life and power. To see the truth on which 
our faith must repose in order to salvation, is not 
virtue ; but, seeing it, to will it. The devils see it, 
and, rebelling against it, tremble in their guilt before 
its majesty. To see the truth does not save. To 
see it is condemnation ; but seeing it, and welcoming 
it to perfect lordship over us, is to unite the soul 



46 satan's devices axd 

to its Redeemer, and make it a joyful partaker of 
his life. 

Man, by sin, has lost his confidence in God — not 
the sentiment that God is worthy of confidence, not 
the knowledge of his truth absolutely and entirely, 
for the law is engraven on the reason — but that 
lining faith, the essential element of which, after the 
truth is seen, consists in its enthronement in the 
will, as the all-governing law of life and duty. 

JNTow, the office of Christ as the author and finisher 
of faith is, by all divine moral influences, to bring 
men to that vital enthronement of the truth in the 
will and heart, which must be secured in order to the 
possibility of salvation. He is the Logos, the Word, 
the Revealer of God to men. By his manifestation 
of the divine object of faith, trust in God becomes 
possible. Our cooperating act, not merely of seeing, 
but of crowning the truth and its Lord, as supreme 
in the soul, completes the exercise of saving faith, 
and puts us in the kingdom. 

On the other hand, Satan becomes the author and 
finisher of unbelief, by hiding from the mind the true 
object of saving faith, and thus he renders its exer- 
cise impossible. When the truth reaches the intellect, 
he will obscure, pervert, and distort it, and bring all 
possible influences within his reach to bear upon the 
mind to prevent the will from so closing in with it as 
is indispensable to a vital and saving faith. "But if 
our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost ; in 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 47 

whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds 
of them which believe not, lest the light of the glori- 
ous gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should 
shine unto them " (2 Cor. 4:3,4). This touch of an 
apostolic pen gives us Satan's method of counter- 
acting the work of Christ as the inspirer of faith, and 
of holding the will in its state of ruinous unbelief. 

Through the exercise of faith, as here defined, the 
whole gospel becomes operative in the soul for its 
salvation. 



48 SATAN'S DEVICES AND 



CHAPTER VIII. 

SATAN, IN THE HEIGHT OF HIS POWER, OBSCURING THE ES- 
SENTIAL OBJECT OF FAITH, CHRIST JESUS THE LORD j 
THUS RENDERING IMPOSSIBLE THE EXERCISE OF A LIV- 
ING FAITH. 

In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which be- 
lieve not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of 
God, should shine unto them. — 2 Cor. 4 : 4. 

Satan's victory is to hold the mind in unbelief. 
He wins the battle if he can succeed in hiding from 
our interior view faith's proper object, which is 
God in Christ, who alone can forgive sin and bestow 
the gift of eternal life. 

We have already shown that the object of faith 
must be made known to the mind, in order to the 
exercise of a living trust on our part. 

Let us advance a step, and show that God alone 
can make this indispensable manifestation of himself 
to us. Mind is sovereign in the realm of its own 
personality ; it is self-revealing ; one person can not 
manifest the personality, the inner life, of another; 
much less can a finite reveal the Infinite Spirit. We 
may learn something about God from his works, and 
from our natures, which he has stamped with his own 
likeness ; but in order to a new-creating faith, and 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 49 

the divine life in ns, God must manifest himself — 
himself as distinct from all other beings — to our 
interior consciousness. This truth is reflected in, and 
illustrated by our human relations. It is when two 
individuals fully and mutually reveal themselves to 
each other, each inviting the other to repose in him 
an unlimited and generous confidence, each giving 
himself to the other in a unity of love, that there 
springs up a life of joyous and blessed experiences, 
which otherwise would have been naturally impos- 
sible. So it is, when God personally manifests 
himself to us, and takes our willing spirits into all 
loving and confidential relations to himself, and 
allows us to behold what we are able of his glory, 
that there springs up within us a new life indeed, the 
very life of God, of which sin had deprived us, and 
we are saved. 

On all sides it is agreed that the mission of Christ 
was to give to the world this needed divine mani- 
festation. He was, therefore, w God manifest in the 
flesh " — the object of saving faith. God he must have 
been himself, or he could not have manifested him to 
the world in a way to restore the life lost by sin. 

Our Unitarian friends, who deny the Deity of 
Christ, insist that he can yet reveal to us more about 
God than we are able to comprehend; and, there- 
fore, that his Deity is in no way essential to his mis- 
sion as our Savior. But their fallacy lies in the 
assumption that to know something about God is 
5 



50 satan's devices ant> 

equivalent to knowing God himself by his own per- 
sonal manifestation, which surely is not true. God, 
as personally and lovingly manifested to the soul, is 
the object on which our faith must fix itself, not 
something concerning him which some other, some 
finite being may report to us. The wickedest men 
may learn all that is knowable about God by his 
works and by the testimony of others ; and yet, lack- 
ing his own manifestation, they will remain dead 
in trespasses and sins. 

Logically, therefore, it will be the masterpiece of 
Satanic skill to hide from the world the Deity of 
Christ, that he may thus remove from men the pillar 
of fire and cloud, and leave them to wander in* the 
dark wilderness of unbelief. 

Consider how effectually he has wrought in this 
high place of his power. There are whole denomi- 
nations of professed Christians who systematically 
deny his Deity. They come with Philip to Christ, 
and say, "Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth 
us ; " and then fail to apprehend the deep signifi- 
cance of those reproving and yet life-giving words of 
Christ in reply: "Have I been so long time tvith 
you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He 
that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how 
sayest thou, then, Show us the Father?" Thus was 
Philip rebuked for looking after God as the object of 
faith and love elsewhere than in Christ. 

Scarcely less successful has he been with multi- 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 51 

tudes who theoretically hold, to the Deity of Christ. 
Their practical unbelief obscures his divine attributes. 
It locates him eighteen hundred years in the distant 
past, and they know him not as an ever-present, 
Almighty Deliverer. This eclipse of the Sun of Right- 
eousness enshrouds the whole matter and method of 
their salvation in darkness. 

It is difficult to see how Satan should so obscure 
the Deity of Christ from men who have the Bible 
and profess to believe it. It is true he was called 
the Son of God ; but that title was given him simply 
as having been divinely begotten in the flesh (Luke 
1:35). He was not known as the Son of God in his 
pre-existent state, and the question is, Who was he 
then? Even if he were but the Son of God, we 
ought to conclude that, in nature and attributes, he 
was the equal of his Father ; for all sons, so far as we 
know, are so equal to their fathers. Nor does it 
seem good reasoning to conclude that, if there are 
three persons in the Godhead, there must be three 
Gods. There does not appear to be any more ab- 
surdity in the supposition that the one omnipresent, 
essential Spirit should manifest himself by a three- 
fold personality, in some respects different from each 
other, than that the one limited, essential spirit, man, 
should manifest himself through a threefold set of 
attributes, each in important respects different from 
the others, and each having its own department of 
the body, — the intellect having the brain, the sensi- 



52 satan's devices and 

bility, the nerves of sensation, and the will, the 
muscular system, — wherewith to perform its assigned 
functions. The one fact is no more absurd, scarcely 
more incomprehensible, than the other. 

Opening our Bibles, the Supreme Being who 
stands out on its pages is plainly the Lord Jesus 
Christ. That God, who w in the beginning made the 
heavens and the earth," the New Testament abun- 
dantly shows to have been Christ. The creative 
volition was his, even though he issued it under the 
direction of the Father ; and the heavens must be 
regarded as testifying to the K eternal power and 
Godhead" of Christ, their Maker (Rom. 1 : 20). 

Again : farther down the line of revelation, some 
Being appears to Moses in the burning bush, who 
reveals himself as the I Am that I Am, the God of 
the fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; who makes 
himself known by his hitherto undisclosed and more 
sacred name Jehovah, which he thrice repeats. If 
the self-existent God of the universe reveals himself 
any where in the Bible, it is here. The burning bush 
becomes the pillar of cloud and fire, and from this 
Shechinah, this same Being leads the people through 
the wilderness. But who was this Being? AVe 
have only to read Paul's sketch of this journey 
of the Israelites (1 Cor. 10), and his statement 
(Heb. 11 : 26), that Moses esteemed the reproach of 
Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, 
to learn that, in his judgment, it was Christ who 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 53 

revealed himself to Moses, and therefore, that the 
self-existent Jehovah of the Old Testament, and the 
pre-existent Christ of the New, were identically the 
same Being. 

Again : still later in the Bible, we find nearly a 
score of passages in which the one Supreme Being 
insists upon his unity in the most positive terms, 
declaring that " there is no God beside " him ; " he is 
-God, and there is none else ; " " he is God in heaven 
above and upon the earth beneath : there is none 
else." And yet this one only God characterizes 
himself in such a way as absolutely to identify him 
as no other than the pre-existent Messiah. He de- 
clares that he is "the King of Israel," and his "Re- 
deemer ; " he is " the first and the last ; " he is the God 
" unto whom every knee shall bow and every tongue 
swear," and besides whom "there is no Savior ;" he is 
the Jehovah who " made the earth, and created man 
upon it; who stretched out the heavens, and com- 
manded all their host ; " he it was who chose the 
fathers, and "brought their seed out of Egypt with 
his mighty power," and made them hear his "voice 
out of the midst of the fire." Christ, then, is the 
one God of the Bible. The Father and Spirit are 
not other Gods, but only separate manifestations of 
the same God. 

And yet Satan blinds the minds of men to the 
Deity of Christ, and holds them in unbelief. His 
object is plain. Our salvation demands an Almighty 
5* 



54 satan's devices and 

Savior. If Moses needed assurance from the I Am 
in order to stand before the throne of Pharaoh, 
much more do we need it in order to overcome 
the foes of our salvation. No finite being in our 
pillar of cloud and fire can lead us through the sea 
and the wilderness to our Promised Land. 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 55 



CHAPTER IX. 

SATAN'S SECOND ECLIPSE OF THE OBJECT OF FAITH — 
HIDING ALSO THE DEITY OF THE SPIRIT, AND FOR A 
LIKE PURPOSE. 

Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. — 
1 Cor. 2 : 11. 

When Christ, as " God manifest in the flesh," left 
the world, it was with the promise that he would 
send the Comforter, whose ministrations would be 
of more value to the disciples than his longer pres- 
ence could be (John 16 : 7). While our Lord re- 
mained in the body, his Deity was unavoidably 
vailed by his flesh. His humanity was, of course, 
specially visible, and made its needed impression. 
On the human side of the Messiah, the disciples had 
become familiar with him, and had learned to 
approach him with confidence. Through the vail, 
they saw something of his Divinity, something of 
the w glory which he had with the Father before the 
world was." But the time had come when they 
needed to know him more perfectly as to his Divine 
nature. Their then knowledge left them too weak 
to stand in the hour of temptation. It was, there- 
fore, "expedient" for Christ to withdraw from the 
flesh, that their attention might be concentrated upon 
his Deity. 



56 Satan's devices and 

The Spirit would succeed him, and "take of the 
things of Christ, and show them unto them." It was 
not the human side of the Redeemer's being which 
the Spirit was chiefly to manifest, since, for such a 
manifestation, it could not have been expedient for 
Christ to leave the flesh and the human conditions 
amid which he had shown himself, but rather his 
eternal power and Godhead, which had been, thus 
far, so thickly vailed by the flesh. The disciples 
must know their beloved Leader as very God, or 
they can not cope with the hostile powers of earth 
and hell which they are soon to meet. On the day of 
Pentecost, the Spirit came, and they received a 
knowledge of their Redeemer which changed their 
weakness into a courage and power fitting them to 
revolutionize the world. Henceforward they stood 
in the fully apprehended Deity of Christ, and spoke 
with the "tongue of fire"; and, with "Emanuel" 
on their banner, their course was thenceforward on- 
ward and triumphant. 

By a logical necessity, then, the Holy Spirit must 
be God. According to principles already stated, no 
being but God himself could reveal God. In the 
performance of his mission, the Spirit did disclose 
and show to the inner life of the disciples the 
supreme Divinity of their Master, and, consequently, 
the infinite value of his words. His mission had a 
higher significance, simply because he could make 
that exhibition more clearly and powerfully to the 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 57 

mind than Christ could possibly do it through the 
vail of his flesh. And it is this which makes the dis- 
pensation of the Spirit " excel in glory " all others. 
By the Spirit's manifestation, we look through all 
vails, all types and shadows, and behold the glorious 
reality of God's character and love, and know our 
God as the life, the joy, and the infinite portion of 
our souls forever. 

The disciples evidently had no other idea than that 
the Spirit was God. If Ananias "lied to the Holy 
Ghost," it was against God he lied. To be " born 
of God " and to be " born of the Spirit " were the 
same thing. They were all "taught of God," and 
yet the Holy Ghost was their teacher. Christians 
are the "temple of God," and yet the God who 
dwells in them as his temple is the Holy Ghost. 
Christ, as to his flesh, is the Son of God, of the High- 
est, and yet he is begotten by the Holy Ghost. Did 
God inspire the prophets? They "spake as they 
were moved by the Holy Ghost." Is it God's work 
to " convince men of sin " ? It is the office-work of 
the Holy Spirit. Is the world in rebellion against 
God ? It is the Holy Spirit they have resisted. Is 
there one offense against God which is unpardonable ? 
It is the " blasphemy of the Holy Ghost." Is God 
omnipresent ? None can fly from the presence of the 
Spirit. Is God omniscient? "The Spirit know- 
eth all things, even the deep things of God." Must 
men be consecrated to God in order to be saved? 



58 satan's devices and 

They must be baptized " into the name of the Father, 
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 

The personality of the Spirit is as clearly recog- 
nized in the Scriptures as that of the Father or of 
Christ. 

How obviously, now, it falls in with the purpose 
of Satan, in holding men in unbelief, to hide from 
them the personality and Deity of the Spirit, by 
whom alone the object of saving faith can be effect- 
ually manifested ! In this way, he obscures the 
glory, and essentially sets aside the power of the 
New Testament, which obviously lies in the agency 
and peculiar ministry of the Spirit ; he robs the be- 
liever of the great characteristic promise of the Chris- 
tian Dispensation, distinctly and impressively given 
by our Lord to his disciples at the closing and most 
memorable hour of his ministry, that the Holy Spirit 
should come and abide with them forever, as their 
Comforter, Teacher, and Sanctifier ; he takes away 
all that which renders the gospel practically better 
than the law, the substance, than the shadow; he 
captures the believer's w strongholds," and leaves him 
without the saving knowledge of the Deliverer. 

There are denominations of Christians by whom 
the personality and Deity of the Spirit are systemat- 
ically denied. They see in the Spirit no infinite, 
intelligent Being, mighty to save by his own self- 
revealing power, but only an impersonal, indefinable 
influence. If men's hearts were not sometimes 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 59 

clearer than their heads, we see not how such could 
escape the death of unbelief. Nor does an orthodox 
theory always suffice to save men from the effects of 
this second eclipse of the object of saving faith. 

When the disciple finds God manifested by the 
Spirit, the difficulties in regard to the Divine mode 
of existence strangely pass away. Although he may 
not be able to solve the mystery of the Trinity, he 
finds the wants of his soul wondrously met as he 
communes with God, his Father, with the same God, 
his Redeemer, and with the same God, his Sanctifier. 
He welcomes to his heart the w Angel of the Cov- 
enant," the Messiah whom the Father has sent ; and 
it does not occur to him, that Christ must be less 
than God in his nature and attributes, because the 
Father appointed him his " messenger " to a lost 
world. 



60 SATAN'S DEVICES AND 



CHAPTER X. 

THE MISCHIEFS SATAN ACCOMPLISHES BY REMOVING FROM 
BEFORE THE EYE OF FAITH THE GODHEAD OF CHRIST 
AND THE SPIRIT. 

But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. — 2 Cor. 4 : 3. 

In the first place, the essential object of saving 
faith being hidden from the mind, a living trust 
therein is rendered impossible. TVe can not rely 
upon one for any thing beyond what he is able to do 
with the powers we ascribe to him. If our " God 
manifest in the flesh," in whom we trust, is only a 
finite being, we have only a finite Savior, who can 
not restore to us the tt life of God " which is lost by 
sin. Failing to find Jehovah manifested in Christ, 
we do not find him at all, and are left to wander in 
the wilderness of error and unbelief, and, perchance, 
betake ourselves to a cold naturalism, and grope 
about to find him in his works. Stars and flowers 
take the place of the Divine Christ ; religious senti- 
mentality and the K works of the flesh " are substi- 
tuted for the new birth, and men have a "name to 
live " while yet dead in sin. 

Again : another consequence of hiding the Deity of 
Christ and the Spirit will be, that, although the 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 61 

intellect may, in some sense, apprehend the truth, 
yet the will, choosing the darkness involved in the 
pursuit of its own selfish ends, will reject and refuse 
to obey it until its unbelief does violence to all rea- 
son, and to all the sane practice of men on other sub- 
jects, and becomes a "marvel" to the Son of God 
himself. The will does not surrender the weapons 
of its rebellion except to its Creator and Lord. 

Again : in proportion as the true object of faith is 
hidden by Satan from the mind, the blessings of faith 
are lost. It is blessed to have faith in any being 
who is worthy of confidence, and the riches of the 
experience of faith will correspond to the perceived 
excellence, the benevolence, and the ability of that 
being. The promises of God pledge to believers 
eternal and exhaustless good, as great as their 
natures will enable them to receive. They are all 
" yea and amen in Christ," and can bring in them to 
us no more of Divinity than we apprehend in him. 
With the eye of our faith open upon God revealed to 
us in Jesus, we dwell in that light which can come 
only from the Divine Mind ; with our hearts stayed 
on Him, f the peace of God which passeth all under- 
standing, keeps our hearts and minds through Christ 
Jesus ; " anchoring our being to Him by faith, we 
outride all the storms of earth, and are nearest heaven 
when on the crest of the topmost wave ; with our 
ear open to Him, his word is a sword which cleaves 
down every foe, or a fountain whose living waters 
6 



62 satan's devices and 

well up and lave and refresh our whole being, and 
cool the fever of sin ; walking with Him, we are in 
w ways of pleasantness and paths of peace ; " sitting 
at His feet, our pride is consumed by the glory of his 
meekness and lowliness of mind ; seeing in our duty 
His will, it is the very elixir of privilege to do it ; 
casting the burden of our sins upon His mercy, they 
are gone forever. But, alas ! if our faith does not 
find Him manifested, all this is lost ; the frosts of 
sin are not dissolved, and the vibrations of heavenly 
joy can not reach our hearts. 

Again : by hiding the Deity of Christ and the 
Spirit, Satan shuts the mind up to its own idea of 
God as conceived in the darkness of sin, and deprives 
it of the right idea as God himself manifests it, to 
inspire a true worship. The result is seen, the world 
over, in the chaos of false and spurious religions. 
Every man becomes a god unto himself. The * gods 
many and lords many," thus conceived, are as antago- 
nistic as selfish men, and as little in harmony as the 
congress of deities on Olympus. . The social and 
religious principles becoming allied, men are drawn 
together in brotherhoods of selfishness, into hier- 
archies, sects, and warring parties ; but their syna- 
gogues will be, so far, the ff synagogues of Satan." 
The Satanic graces of pride, jealousy, hatred, 
revenge, and their like, will combine in a common 
opposition to that Christianity which derives its life 
from the Deity of the despised Nazarene, and from 






THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 63 

that cross to which the same opposition nailed the 
Son of God. 

The idea of God, thus conceived, has no redeem- 
ing power in it, but the very opposite. The Phari- 
sees were zealously religious under the idea of God 
as they found it in their own selfish hearts ; Paul, 
under the idea, as God the Holy Spirit manifested it 
to him. Their hearts remained as unchanged, and as 
full of pride and hatred, as his had been before the 
Divine manifestation met him on his way to Damas- 
cus. As they conceived the character of God, they 
felt it their duty to crucify Christ. As he learned it 
from God himself, his love for Christ at once became 
a passion, and he would henceforth glory in nothing 
but in w Christ and him crucified." 

By this process, then, Satan inveigles the mind 
into all manner of unbelief, and easily leads it cap- 
tive at his will. 



64 SATAN'S DEVICES AND 



CHAPTER XI. 

SATAN SOWING TAKES. — PASTOR'S SKETCH ILLUSTRATING 
THE NECESSITY OF HAVING THE RIGHT SEED-TRUTH SOWN 
IN THE HEART, THAT A TRUE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 
MAY GROW THEREFROM. 

The enemy that sowed them is the devil. — Matt. 13 : 39. 

When Christ charges Satan with sowing tares 
(Matt. 13 : 25-39), we suppose he means to say that 
that wicked one disseminates, jji the minds of men, 
ideas and principles, the effect of which will be to 
counteract the growth and influence of the truth 
implanted by God himself. 

In a large garden, may be found a great variety of 
plants, differing in their forms, colors, fragrance, and 
in many of their habits of life. Side by side, they 
grow from the same soil ; the same sun gives them 
light, the same dews and showers refresh them, and 
the same hands cultivate them. Whence, then, their 
differences ? They are to be found in the differing 
seeds. 

The seeds of character are ideas and purposes 
planted in the mind. Men grow to be what they 
are, in all their radical diversities of character, from 
certain seed-ideas. Let a youth, just budding into 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 65 

manhood, take up the problem of his life. The 
future is all before him. What shall he do with the 
powers which are already stirring within him, and 
which must be exercised ? At what shall he aim — 
at political eminence, at literary distinction, or 
wealth, or, peradventure, the Christian life? He is 
absorbed, and his brain aches with the subject. He 
ponders it long and anxiously, and finally decides, / 
will be rich. 

That idea, thus implanted, is the seed of his char- 
acter now to be unfolded. It germinates in his 
intellect, and his whole thinking force is applied to 
the question, How shall I gain wealth? — by what 
means, on land or sea, by what business, by what 
principles? It expands in his sensibility, and the 
entire current of his emotions swells and surges 
along the channel, of earthly gain. He loves every 
thing which will give him wealth. The " price cur- 
rent " is his bible. In the strong speech of Carlyle, 
" to gain is heaven, to lose is hell." The same seed 
matures in his will ; and this mighty central force of 
the mind works all possible agencies within its reach 
for the one end of amassing the chosen treasure. 
This young man thus becomes an apostle Paul in the 
opposite direction. 

The seed-idea of Paul's character was this : " Christ 
and him crucified," all and in all ; absolute steward- 
ship to Jesus ; all things done in his name and for 
his glory ; Paul, the 7 old man," dead, and Christ, the 
6* 



66 SATAN'S DEVICES ANTD 






" new man," alive in him. From this idea grew the 
character of the apostle. It completely mastered his 
intellect so that he would only know Christ and the 
Cross. It possessed his sensibility so that he rejoiced 
in tribulation, and wept over lost men, and loved 
them the more, the less they loved him. It wrought 
with such living power in his will and heart, that his 
words, from the moment they were uttered to this 
day, have been among the most potent moral forces 
the world has ever felt. 

A leading and subtle device of Satan, as an effect- 
ual means of inflicting fatal moral injury, is to get 
an imperfect or incomplete seed-idea planted in the 
minds of Christian men. As an illustration of the 
importance of receiving the " good seed " instead of 
ff tares," I present the following: — 

Pastor's Sketch. 

An excellent parishioner once gave me the follow- 
ing account of his experience, and wished I would 
point out the difficulty under which he was laboring. 
He wished to live every day as a Christian should 
live. His habit was to enter his closet before going 
to his business in the morning, and not to leave it 
till he felt that his sins were forgiven, and the smile 
of his Savior rested on his soul. He then went to his 
office to transact the business of the day. He soon 
found himself drifting from the sweet peace with 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 67 

which he left his closet. He was in a different 
atmosphere. God did not seem near. Temptation 
would sour and vex his spirit, and easily gain the 
mastery. In his bargains, he found that he loved 
himself much better than his customers. It was not 
easy for him there to bear witness for Christ. The 
glowing heart, with which he left the closet, became 
hardened and insensible ; and at night he found 
himself far away from Jesus, with his harp unstrung 
upon the willows. It required bitter repentings, 
and often many tears, to get back to the place from 
which he had fallen away. He had gone through the 
process till his soul was weary, and he longed to find 
a way of retaining his morning blessing through the 
day ; and, hence, his inquiries. 

My reply to his difficulty was on this wise : Your 
radical idea of the Christian life is incomplete — too 
narrow. You do not make it include your business. 
That is your own, not the Lord's. You leave your 
Savior in the closet, and go to your office, the ser- 
vant of A. H. D. Paul's idea of that life was Christ, 
all and in all, self dead, and Christ living in him. 
He made tents for the Savior, as truly as he made 
sermons. There was no division of himself between 
Christ and Mammon. Yours, on the other hand, is 
Christ in the closet, and self in the counting-room ; 
Christ in your worship, and self in your business. 
You have broken in two the very seed-idea of the 
Christian life, and thrown away an essential part of 



68 satan's devices and 

it. That which you cultivate in your closet does as 
well as any half-seed can. You must take Paul's 
root-idea if you would have complete fruit in your 
experience. You need to fail in your business, and 
make a full assignment at once to Christ, and take 
your position in the business, not as a principal in 
the firm, but as the "steward," the "confidential 
clerk " of your Lord and Master. Then you will 
find Christ in his counting-room as well as in the 
closet, and his business shall no longer be a snare to 
you, but a means of grace. 

His eyes were opened; he made the proposed 
assignment, and found a blessing richer, every way, 
than his pastor predicted. The Master was with him 
all the day ; his counting-room was a Bethel ; the 
Divine Presence kept his soul loyal and true ; his 
tongue was loosed ; he could sell goods and preach 
Christ at the same time ; and, as he remarked, he 
"was not tempted to cheat any more in selling 
leather," for his new Employer did not allow it. At 
night, he returned to his closet in advance of his 
morning position, and onward he went, day by day, 
growing in grace, and in favor with God and with 
man. Such were the fruits of the true seed fully 
received into the soul. 

It makes all difference, then, in the life of a Chris- 
tian, whether or not he has the true seed-idea at bot- 
tom. Paul had it ; and he found the grace of God 
all-abounding, the power of temptation broken, and 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 69 

the service of Christ his highest delight. His expe- 
rience was a combination of the greatest possible 
moral forces, such as hope, love, joy, justice, patience, 
meekness, and the like, and carried with it, there- 
fore, a living demonstration of the truth of the gos- 
pel. But with an essentially defective seed-idea, the 
religious life must be correspondingly defective and 
powerless. The whole character is a failure, exhibit- 
ing to the world a sad combination of the elements 
of weakness, sorrow, sighing, doubt, fear, injustice, 
impatience, and unbelief, repelling other minds from 
Christ, rather than drawing them sweetly to embrace 
him. 

Thus the "enemy" scatters broadcast over the 
" field of the world " his tares. What they are, and 
how they bear their noxious fruit, will appear as we 
progress. 



70 SATAN'S DEVICES AND 



CHAPTER XII. 

SATAN AS THE FATHER OF LIES. — PRINCIPLES PREMISED. 

When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own : for he is a liar, and the 
father of it. — John 8 : 44. 

The tares which Satan sows are the lies which he 
impresses upon the minds of men. Before exposing 
some of these falsehoods, we will state several impor- 
tant principles, which need to be considered in this 
connection. 

1. The object of Satan in the use of lies is, of 
course, to destroy the soul, to confirm it in the dark- 
ness, guilt, and ruin of sin. 

2. TVhen men accept what arc really the lies of 
Satan, they hold them as truths; and the consequence 
is, that they have all the binding force of truth, and 
all the damaging effect of lies. The mind is not 
made for falsehood. It first calls it truth, and then 
welcomes it to its fatal and ruinous work. 

3. While lies have possession of the mind, they, of 
course, exclude from it the corresponding truths. 
There is a natural self-consistency in our mental 
operations. TTe do not consciously believe that a 
thins; is both true and false at the same time. To 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 71 

hold as a truth that two and two are six, is to hold 
as a lie that two and two are four. Some great lie, 
which the mind may adopt as a truth, will inevitably 
exclude the whole gospel from the soul as a saving 
power. If a man holds that he is not a sinner in 
the Bible sense, the whole gospel becomes a nullity, 
and can have no significance to him. 

4. To believe the lies of Satan against God, involves 
an impeachment of the Divine character for veracity. 
It is to transfer the character of Satan to God, and 
that of God to Satan. It is to account and treat God, 
"who can not lie," as a liar; and Satan, who is the 
father of liars, and who will not use the truth except 
in a way to have the effect of lies, as worthy of all 
confidence. It is, in our conduct, to undeify Jeho- 
vah as to his most essential moral attribute ; and 
this is the very climax of guilt. Nor is it any valid 
excuse for treating God as a liar by our unbelief, that 
the promises, in which we refuse to trust, seem "too 
good " to belong to persons so imworthy as our- 
selves. 

5. The lies of Satan are mainly anchored in the 
sensibility. The attack of the enemy is not direct 
upon the reason, for that affirms, intuitively, the 
existence and veracity of God. Nor is the onset 
direct upon the will. Satan does not come and 
nakedly urge a man to set up his will against his 
Maker and Benefactor, against truth and obligation. 
He is too wise to fly so palpably in the face of man's 



72 SATAN'S DEVICES AXD 

moral nature. He rather plants his lie, sows his 
tares, in the emotional nature. You feel that the 
thing is true, though reason may say it is false. The 
feeling possesses and haunts you, and you can not 
rid yourself of it, that, for example, there is no 
mercy for you; and feeling thus, you allow your 
reason to be silenced, and your will to go over to the 
feeling, and accept the lie as truth, and Satan's object 
is accomplished. He has hooked his chain into your 
will through the lie he planted in your sensibility, 
and he thus easily leads you ?r captive at his will." 
This he will continue to do so long as you will con- 
sent to take as true his impressions, instead of the 
voice of your reason and the positive testimonies of 
God's word. The whole coast here is lined with 
wrecks. 

6. Satan adapts his lies, varies, changes, multi- 
plies and divides them, to meet the idiosyncrasies, 
prejudices, and the surroundings of each individual 
soul whose destruction he seeks. All his skill and 
knowledge and power of deception, are doubtless 
employed to turn light into darkness and darkness 
into light. Fortunately for the world, however, Satan 
can not succeed in extinguishing the Sun of Eight- 
eousness. 

7. That Satan has neither tongue nor voice, does 
not prevent his ministration of lies. Language is 
one medium of thought in the world, but there is no 
proof that this is at all necessary in the realm of 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 73 

spirit. For aught we know, Satan has the same 
power, in kind, to impress men with falsehood, that 
the Holy Spirit has to seal truth upon the mind. 

8. When lies become thoroughly enthroned in the 
will, it is very difficult, and often impossible, to dis- 
lodge them. They have possession of all the mind's 
powers, so that every avenue is jealously guarded 
against the approach of the truth. The whole force 
of mental habit and of apparent interest, is on the 
side of falsehood. The power of the mind itself to 
find and hold the truth is, by the perversion of its 
faculties, sadly impaired. The difficulty of casting 
out devils is only the difficulty of casting out lies. 
No voice but that of the Almighty can effectually 
command them. 

7 



74 satan's devices and 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE LIES WHEREBY SATAN KEEPS MEN FROM BECOMING 
CHRISTIANS. 

Why hath Satan filled thine heart, to lie to the Holy Ghost? — Acts 5 : 3. 

The falsehoods which Satan impresses upon men 
are of two classes. By those of one class, he aims 
to keep them from becoming Christians at all ; by 
those of the other, to prevent Christians from living 
a true, earnest, and effective life. In the present 
chapter, we will consider some of the lies of the first 
class. 

Lie J\ T o. 1. 

We name, first, the original falsehood, which, with 
serpent tongue, Satan told to Eve — ff Ye shall not 
surely die" In other words, " JSFo serious conse- 
quences are to be apprehended from sin and trans- 
gression. The fruit is good; your eyes will be 
opened; you will become wise. Go on in disregard 
of God; trample on his law and authority; setup 
your own will, and live for your own pleasure 
supremely, and all will be well at last — ye shall not 
surely die." 

This, for substance, is the terrible lie. The 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 75 

masses of mankind, hearing it in alluring tones, lay 
the flattering unction to their souls. They commit 
and adjust their wills to it as truth, and thus believe 
and convert the lie into a seeming reality. They are 
then prepared to cling to the falsehood, notwithstand- 
ing the remonstrances of reason, and the teaching of 
all analogy and revelation. They live on, transgress- 
ing the law of God continually and without a blush. 
While the mind clings to this falsehood, the gospel 
can not enter. Salvation is impossible. The soul 
will take no other gospel but the sophism, "Ye shall 
not surely die." But when the lie is abandoned, 
when the will adjusts itself to the truth, and the soul 
begins to see and feel that sin brings ruin and death, 
then the inquiry will naturally be made, "What 
shall I do to be saved ? " 



Lie No. 2. 

When the power of the first great lie is broken, so 
that the conviction of the evil of sin is awakened in 
any measure, Satan is ready with this monstrous 
untruth — " God is a hard Master, reaping where 
he has not sown^ demanding service which no man 
can render, and therefore it is useless to attempt to 
obey him." 

With thousands, the false impression is accepted 
as truth. The Bible says, "Love God with all your 
heart, and your neighbor as yourself." "Impos- 



76 SATAN'S DEVICES AND 



A 



sible," says Satan. "Love your enemies; bless 
them that curse you," says God. " No man can do 
it," insists the father of lies. w Obey the Sermon on 
the Mount," says Christ. * It is out of the question ; 
no man ever did it," responds the adversary. n Over- 
come the world ; stand up for Jesus against princi- 
palities and powers ; die to sin and live unto right- 
eousness," says the Word. * It is out of the ques- 
tion ; Christians are no better than others," answers 
Satan. 

Thus the debate goes on, till the falsehood is effect- 
ually rooted. Viewed through this lie, the gospel is 
only suggestive of perplexing doubts and fears. It 
disappoints hope, and involves the s'oul in a painful 
effort to obtain the good it never reaches ; and the 
Christian seems a very Sisyphus, forever doomed to 
struggle to no purpose between the requirements of 
the gospel and the impossibility of performing them. 

How effectually does Satan accomplish his mali- 
cious purpose with all whom he can persuade, con- 
sciously or unconsciously, to accept this falsehood ! 
No man will truly embrace Christianity, as thus con- 
ceived. 

But the falsehood is transparent. The gospel pro- 
claims "liberty," not a "yoke of bondage." How 
completely is this device of the enemy refuted by the 
simple word of God ! — "If there be first a willing 
mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and 
not according to that he hath not." 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 77 

' ? Why, then, does it seem so hard for even many 
honest minds to perform Christian duty? " There is 
but one answer. They have linked their souls to 
some falsehood through which they can practically 
see Christ only "as a root out of dry ground." The 
object of love is hidden. The only way of escape is 
to abandon the lie, to cease to make Christ a hard 
Master by renouncing the lie that he is so. Cast 
away the word of Satan, which brings death, and lay 
hold of the truth, the simple fact, that God is the 
easiest, most considerate, loving, and sympathizing 
Master in the universe ; that he will perform all his 
exceeding great and precious promises, and make his 
grace abound above all our necessities and infirmi- . 
ties; wrench the soul at once from the falsehood; 
stay it upon the truth, to live or die with that, 
and deliverance will come ; new heavens and a new 
earth will appear. 

Lie JSTo. 3. 

Another lie of this class is the bold falsehood, that 
the sinner does not possess the natural ability to do 
what God requires. 

The former lie sets the mind to looking at God's 
commandments as grievous — too difficult for poor, 
weak human nature ; not absolutely impossible to be 
performed, but so unreasonable as to discourage 
effort. This one, on the other hand, turns the eye 
7* 



78 satan's devices axd 

within, to the alleged fact that the mind is not 
endowed with the power which is necessary to obe- 
dience. When the will is committed to this false 
persuasion, the consequences are well nigh as disas- 
trous as if there were, indeed, no mental power by 
which obedience to God could be rendered. No man 
undertakes to do what he holds in his will that he can 
not perform. 

I am not now reasoning with speculative fatalists, 
but with those to whom, having committed them- 
selves, in spirit, to this falsehood, it seems as if they 
lacked the power to obey God ; and it may facilitate 
their escape from this device of the enemy to look at 
the simple facts as they are. One fact is, that we 
can not serve two opposite masters at the same time. 
We have no ability to serve God while ice persist in 
seizing Mammon. But the requirement is, that we 
abandon the service of the wrong master, and enter 
upon that of the right one. We are not to accept 
the lie that we have no power to serve God at all, 
because we can not serve him, while we allow our- 
selves to be the servants of sin and Satan. Another 
simple fact is, that the power to choose, serve, and 
love one object, is a power so to devote ourselves to 
another. It does not require different powers of 
mind to serve different masters. Taking the truth, 
then, as it is in regard to God, — that he does not 
require what we can not render ; that his w grace is 
sufficient for us ;" that every thing in the universe, 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 79 

which is lovable and attractive, centers in him, and 
invites our love and service, — it seems infinitely 
absurd to say, we can not love him as he requires. 
Away, then, with the falsehood, the belief of which 
perverts the mind's powers, and let the soul be 
adjusted to the truth. It is not some great thing, 
requiring vast capabilities, which God demands, but 
simply to receive an offered and loving Savior, whose 
own efficiency will accomplish our salvation, while we 
render him the service of grateful, trustful hearts. 

Lie JVo. 4. 

w There is no mercy for me" There are many, in 
all our congregations, who have given place to this 
falsehood. They have been through revivals ; they 
have often sought a religious experience ; they have 
struggled long against their sins ; they have w done 
many things," and yet they are " without hope and 
without God in the world." The feeling that there is 
no mercy for them, has pressed itself upon them; 
they have yielded their wills to it as a truth, and thus 
closed the door against themselves. 

But the falsehood is palpable. The testimony of 
God himself is, that "whosoever will" may "come 
and take the water of life freely ; " that Jesus has 
"tasted death for every man; " that "none who come 
to him shall be cast out ; " that where sin abounds, 
grace much more abounds ; that he has given eternal 



80 satan's devices and 

life to men, so that it only awaits their reception by 
faith. Nothing can exclude a soul from heaven but 
a voluntary distrust and rejection of offered mercy. 
Let the lie, then, be dislodged, and the soul be 
adjusted to the truth as it is in Jesus, and mercy 
shall be found as abundant as ocean waters. 

Lie JYb. 5. 

w I am not elected; or, if I am, I shall be saved at 
any rate; and if I am not, I shall be lost, do ivhat I 
may. He will have mercy on whom lie will have 
mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.^ 

This device of Satan, one would think, is too worn 
to have influence with any honest mind. It is not 
likely Satan ever saw the catalogue of the elect ; and 
if he had, he would not report it truly. God has 
said, "He that believeth shall be saved;" and to 
believe is, therefore, to "make your election sure. " 
God is the Creator and Father of all men ; and he 
has no preference of some men, as such, over others. 
He elects all who will believe, love, and obey him. 
He is not willing that any should perish. Only 
believe : God will adjust the doctrines of Election 
and Grace. 

Lie No. 6. 

w Experimental religion is all a delusion. A 
change of heart is a mere excitement, which soon 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 81 

passes away, securing no change of character. It is 
safe to risk all on a good, moral life." 

Many intelligent persons have so committed them- 
selves to this lie of Satan, that those most imperative 
words of Christ, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, 
Except a man be born again, he can not see the king- 
dom of God," have ceased to affect them. Admit 
that some persons deceive themselves ; that there are 
w stony-ground hearers " who become excited on the 
subject of religion without really becoming "new 
creatures in Christ Jesus ; " that some, who receive 
the seed in good ground, do, at times, under the 
pressure of temptation, "leave their first love ;" — is 
there any decent reason for believing this broad 
denial of the reality of all vital Christian experience ? 

When the inebriate signs the pledge, and stands 
with the hosts of temperance, is his experience of 
joyous exultation a delusion, because such emotions 
do not last? 

When a parent's loving kindness, tender forbear- 
ance, and patient sacrifice for a wayward, rebellious, 
and wicked son, have at last broken his proud heart, 
and brought him to his knees, confessing and renoun- 
cing his grievous sin, and the tokens of parental for- 
giveness and favor fill his soul with joy, is there 
nothing in his change of heart, because that emotion 
must and will soon subside? Was the prodigal's 
return to his father's house a delusion, because the 
festivities of the occasion ceased when the fatted calf 



82 Satan's devices and 

was eaten? and was the prodigal still in the same 
moral state as when spending his substance in riotous 
living in a strange land ? 

Who does not see the object of Satan in fastening 
this lie upon the minds of men ? and how surely he 
accomplishes his malicious purpose by it with all who 
consent to receive it as truth ! 

Lie jSTo. 7. 

We have met persons with this strange falsehood 
engraven on their hearts : "God does not love me; I 
am beneath his notice; am nothing in his sight; and 
he will not turn aside from his infinite affairs to give 
any attention to such a mote or worm of the dust as 
I am" 

O, how false is all this ! Satan knows that every 
such word is saturated with falsehood. The venom 
oozes out at every letter. " God does not love you !" 
You are the very person he loves. You may say as 
boldly and assuredly, — "who loved wze, and gave 
himself for me" as did Paul, for he has "tasted death 
for every man." "Xothing in his sight ! " You are 
more in his sight than the whole universe of material 
works. For you they were made. For jou his 
angels minister. For you he has prepared a man- 
sion and a crown. He calls you to his throne, and to 
all the fullness of his own glory and blessedness. 
You are a chief object of his thought. To save you 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 83 

is his infinite affair; and from this object nothing 
ever diverts his attention. 

Drop, then, the wretched falsehood, and lay hold 
of the truth that God is your Friend, your infinitely 
loving Father, who waits to be gracious to you. 
Away with the falsehood, that the greatness of God 
places him beyond your reach. If his infinitude 
does not prevent his f? clothing the grass," or K num- 
bering the hairs upon your head," — if it does not 
prevent his creating and providing for innumerable 
orders of living existences, invisible to us except 
through the most powerful microscopes — surely it 
will not prevent his care for your immortal soul, the 
noblest specimen of his handiwork. 

Lie JSTo. 8. 

^ 1 do not need religion; I am honest and sincere, 
and this is enough ." This lie is strongly impressed 
on many who would shrink from its avowal. Per- 
haps the mass of men have no vivid sense of the 
importance to them of the Christian hope and life. 
The present life absorbs them. They are honest with 
the world ; and, judging themselves by their human 
standard, wilich overlooks their relations to God, 
they fail to see their characters as the Bible presents 
them. They often conclude they are "as good as 
Christians," accept this falsehood of Satan, and dis- 
miss the whole subject of personal religion. 



84 satan's devices and 

This delusion ought to be dissolved by a moment's 
consideration of such queries as these : Have I not 
a future existence to provide for? Do I not need 
pardon for sin ? Do I not need the eternal life which 
Christ promises to those who believe and obey him ? 
Have I not a nature which is correlated to the nature 
of Him who made me, and which will not and can not 
be satisfied till it is brought into moral, spiritual, and 
eternal harmony with its Author ? Have I no need 
of such a personal Friend as Jesus Christ ? of the vic- 
tory he pledges over sin and the grave ? And do I 
know what I need as well as He knows, who said, 
" Without me ye can do nothing ? " 

TTe might extend this catalogue of Satan's lies 
indefinitely, for "their name is Legion." Every 
truth of the Bible which is directly important to the 
conversion of the sinner, seems to be contradicted or 
covered up in his mind by some false and deceptive 
impression. The Scriptures teach that the uncon- 
verted are w enemies of God ; " that K the wrath of 
God abideth on them ; " that their hearts are w deceit- 
ful above all things, and desperately wicked ; " that 
" because sentence against an evil work is not exe- 
cuted speedily, therefore the hearts of the sons of 
men are fully set in them to do evil," as if they were 
presuming on the forbearance of God to live on in 
sin ; that the unregenerate, supremely selfish heart is 
like a sepulcher, "full of all uncleanness and dead 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 85 

men's bones ; " that he who willfully rejects Christ 
participates in all the wickedness of past ages ; and 
yet these, and other similar teachings of the Bible, 
which, if a man believed them, would make him 
quiver to the center of his being, and humble himself 
in dust and ashes, are wholly without effect, because 
they are hidden from the soul by the falsehoods of 
Satan. All the exceeding great and precious prom- 
ises of God to the penitent are, in like way, con- 
cealed from the sinner by the adjustment of his faith 
to the lies of the devil. 

To one believing falsehood and not truth, convic- 
tion of sin is impossible ; and the sinner vainly 
imagines that he shall stand acquitted before a holy 
God. Looking through the mist and vapor with 
which the adversary has enveloped his moral being, 
the whole subject of religion appears so complicated, 
so unsatisfactory, that he dismisses it as practically 
unworthy his attention. These dark clouds of false- 
hood must be dispersed before the Sun of Righteous- 
ness can be seen, or the soul be delivered from the 
guilt and ruin of sin. 
8 



86 satan's devices and 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE LIES BY WHICH SATAN AIMS TO WEAKEN AND WASTE 
THE INNER LIFE OF CHRISTIANS. 

If it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. — Matt, 24 : 24. 

It must be remembered that Christians are still 
moral agents, and susceptible to the influence of evil 
motives as well as of good ones. Their conversion 
does not remove them from the sphere of Satanic 
lies. If Satan could present his fictions and sophis- 
tries to Christ himself, much more can he urge them 
upon his followers. Falsehood accepted by the 
Christian will work as disastrously for him as for the 
unconverted. It may practically exclude saving 
truth from the soul, and, while it is believed, annul 
the whole power of the gospel. 

Satan will aim to cripple the individual disciple, 
and to force him into a style of character and living 
which will not only destroy his usefulness, but make 
him a positive stumbling-block to the world. 

God has been pleased to constitute his church the 
R light of the world and the salt of the earth." But she 
can be neither the one nor the other, except as she 
abides in Christ and the truth. Satan will, of course, 
seek to dissever that light and life-giving union, to 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 87 

turn her light into darkness, and to make her a false 
witness of Christ to men. Thus, by seducing the 
leaders into such a state of wickedness that they 
could only see, in Christ, "a prince of devils," — a 
"fellow" unfit to live, — he extinguished the light of 
the Jewish church. And if now he would convert 
the church into a great worldly hierarchy, or into 
smaller and conflicting politico-religious organiza- 
tions, working on a selfish basis in "the flesh," and 
not in " the spirit," it is because he hates the light, 
and would disqualify the church for effectual effort 
toward the salvation of the world. 

We are now prepared to consider some of the lies 
with which Satan enters the fold of God. 



Lie No. 1. 

" To be an active, effective Christian is very diffi- 
cult; for you, it is impossible. You have not the 
necessary gifts, and are not called to it" 

The enemy has effectually lodged this falsehood 
in the hearts of a very large proportion of the pro- 
fessed disciples of Christ. Their wills are adjusted 
to it as truth, and they have formed the habit of act- 
ing accordingly. A large majority of those who are 
found in the vestries and prayer-rooms, constitute a 
company of spiritual paralytics. Their tongues are 
dumb. They bear no testimony for Jesus, and they 
call not upon his name. If there be life within them, 



88 satan's devices and 

they give it no expression. They feel that they 
can 7iot. There is a still larger number in the same 
bondage who seldom, for that very reason, visit the 
assemblies for social prayer and praise. They are 
quite as unable to use their talents out of the sanc- 
tuary as in it. They venture not upon a serious 
effort to win a soul to Christ, from the beginning to 
the end of the year. This is not true of unlearned 
and timid men, and men unused to public speaking 
alone, but of men of fine intellects, of disciplined 
minds, and of extended practice in the use of their 
powers, as well. Many feel their bondage sadly, and 
w r ish they were free ; while others, believing the lie 
more implicitly, cease to condemn themselves, al- 
though they know they are most w barren fig-trees." 

The consequences of believing this lie, this slander 
upon our blessed Lord, are terrible every way, to the 
individual, the church, and the world. The amount 
of talent, of moral power, which is, by this means, 
suppressed, is immense. If these buried forces were 
set free, and brought into earnest use, the whole 
world would soon feel their influence. There are 
individual men in the church, who, on other subjects, 
deeply impress and mold whole communities. If 
all Christian men used their talents for Christ with 
the same freedom and power which they show in 
their business, Christianity would speedily be ele- 
vated to its proper supremacy in the earth. 

Then, one of the worst results of believing this 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 89 

lie, is the practical difficulty which it puts in the way 
of maintaining communion with God in private. 
How can a child love a parent whom he regards as 
requiring service of him which he can not perform ? 
No more can a Christian delight himself in a Savior 
whom he practically charges with laying upon him 
burdens grievous to be borne. 

Christian, believe the lie no longer ! God's com- 
mands are "not grievous." "Liberty to the captive" 
is proclaimed. "Out of the mouth of babes," Christ 
has ordained strength. Cling to the promise, "My 
grace is sufficient for thee." Resist the devil, hurling 
it into his face that he, not Christ, is the hard master. 
" Stand up for Jesus," lovingly to confess and praise 
his name, and he will loose your tongue ; or, if that 
refuse to speak, your tears shall tell a story richer 
than words can express. Persist, will it, life or 
death, and you shall soon have possession of your 
powers, and the use of them for Christ shall make 
your soul, through grace, like a "well-watered 
garden." 

Lie No. 2. 

We class among the most mischievous lies of 
Satan, his denial, to their felt experience, of the per- 
petual, loving, and sustaining presence of God with 
his people. 

The doctrine of the Bible is, that our God is ever 
present with his children, to comfort and sustain 



90 Satan's devices and 

them in every hour of need. He knows their weak- 
ness and dependence, and pledges his presence to be 
the life and strength of their moral being. Under 
the old dispensation, his promise was to be with his 
people, w even down to old age and hoar hairs," and 
"in all places whithersoever they went." Paul takes 
the Old Testament pledge and makes it over, with 
increased emphasis, to the Christian church (Heb. 
13: 5), as literally rendered in the hymn, "I'll 
never, no, never, no, never, forsake " thee. Moses 
rebuked the Israelites because they tempted the Lord, 
saying, "Is the Lord with us or not ?" (Ex. 17 : 7). 
His presence was not to be questioned, even in the 
wilderness. "Fear thou not, for I am with thee," 
saith Jehovah, in the Old Testament. "I will not 
leave you comfortless," "Lo, I am with you always," 
says Jesus, in the New. God's presence was specially 
pledged in the Tabernacle and Temple of the Old 
Testament; and under the Xew Dispensation, the 
Christian becomes the Temple wherein God dwells. 
The sum of the promises is, "I will dwell in them, and 
walk in them, and be a God and Father unto them." 
Nor is this promised presence of God identical with 
the mere attribute of omnipresence. It is a conscious 
manifestation of himself to his people, whereby he 
communes with them, inspires them with his love, 
cheers them with hope, nerves them for endurance, 
evokes their gratitude, quickenSf them with his 
thoughts and purposes, persuades them to patient 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 91 

obedience, works in them to will and to do his good 
pleasure ; and, in short, impresses upon them his 
own character, and fills them with his own fullness. 

The strength of the Christian is, of course, in this 
conscious, loving, sympathizing, and upholding pres- 
ence of God. With this, he can, with Paul, stand 
and do all things ; or, with Moses, "endure as seeing 
Him who is invisible ; " or, with the martyrs, shout 
victory at the stake. Nothing so effectually extin- 
guishes the power of temptation as the conscious 
presence of God. We once knew a friend who was 
struggling against the habit of drinking. Passing 
daily the place of temptation, it seemed impossible 
to resist the burning appetite. His affectionate wife 
proposed to accompany him beyond the dreaded 
saloon, filled with old associates ; and her loving 
presence was all-sufficient to counteract the tempta- 
tion. And thus the abiding presence of God affords 
to his saints the infinite protection of his love. 

On the other hand, without this sustaining Pres- 
ence, we can not stand. So soon as Christ was re- 
moved from their sight, by seeming to fall into the 
hands of his enemies, all his disciples were over- 
whelmed. It was as if the ground had sunk from 
beneath their feet. The fearfulness of "that hour" 
and " the power of darkness " was all in the fact that, 
to their view, the presence of their Eedeemer was 
taken from them. His departure involved the fall- 
ing away of the very foundations on which their 



92 SATAN'S DEVICES AND 

faith rested ; and no wonder that they w all forsook 
him and fled." Had they known, then, what they 
afterward, on the day of Pentecost, learned, namely, 
that He, their God, was still present as their 
Almighty Spiritual Deliverer, they would not thus 
have fallen. 

It is just as fatal to spiritual life, to-day, to lose 
our hold upon the conscious presence of our all- 
sustaining Redeemer, as it was in w that hour " when 
the '* Shepherd was smitten " and the " sheep were 
scattered." 

Now, if Satan can make the impression upon the 
minds of God's people that Christ is not continually 
with them as their life and strength, — if he can get 
them to accept the lie, even unconsciously, and com- 
mit the will to it as a truth, — he practically removes 
their spiritual foundations, and they sink like lead in 
the waters. 

Just here, we think, Satan has gained his most 
material advantage over the church. To a large ex- 
tent, his fearful lie is really, though not theoretically, 
accepted. The will of the Christian is uncoupled, as 
the train from the engine, from the truth and prom- 
ise of the divine, conscious, all-sustaining Presence, 
and coupled to this terrible falsehood ; and thus the 
enemy has him under his feet. ^Ye recognize the 
presence of God only upon occasion of revivals, 
perhaps, or when some great calamity or affliction 
arrests us ; and the result is, we are practically over- 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 93 

whelmed with unbelief. Every thing is wrong with 
us ; we are defeated, our arms and stores are taken, 
and we are prisoners of war. If Napoleon had fallen 
in the heat of a great battle, it would have weakened 
his own army and encouraged the enemy. Marshal 
Ney might have headed the column and rallied the 
French for victory. But if the " Captain of our Sal- 
vation" disappear from the field, our strength fails 
utterly. No Marshal Ney, no Gabriel even, could 
take his place. There can be no remedy for the loss 
of the Divine Presence. Horace said, — 

" Nil desperandum, Teucro Duce," — 

to express the unbounded confidence of victory which 
the army of Teucer had in their leader. Convert the 
line into a Christian maxim, and read it, — 

Nil desperandum, Christo Duce, — 

and you express exactly the feeling of Paul when he 
said, "I can do all things through Christ who 
strengtheneth me." Nothing is to be despaired of 
with Christ for our Leader. Caesar said to his ter- 
rified boatman, as they set forth on the troubled 
waters, "J¥e time i vehis Coesarem " — Fear not ; you 
bear Csesar. If Christians had a faith enabling them 
to hear the Son of God saying to them, "Fear not; 
you beaf* your Savior : he who holds the sea in his 
hands and the winds in his fists is in the ship," they 
could no longer fear and be troubled, no matter how 



94 satan's devices and 

severe the storm. But if we lose our Leader, we 
are demoralized, and our strongest Peter strikes his 
colors at the taunt of a Jewish maiden. 

What, then, is to be done ? I answer, boldly re- 
sist the lie of Satan. Treat it as a lie, and not as a 
truth. Lay hold of the great Bible promise, and 
insist upon its truth to you. "But I do not feel his 
presence, but rather that he is far from me," you say. 
But what if you <\.ofeel so? Satan has anchored the 
lie in your sensibilit3 r , and, so long as you believe it, 
you can not feel otherwise. Are you to judge God 
by your feelings, or by his word? You do not feel 
that he is any where else ; and is he therefore out of 
existence ? You do not feel that his omniscient eye 
runs your being through and through every mo- 
ment ; that his power is exerted every instant to 
keep you in being ; that he is a God of truth, and will 
keep his word to you ; and will you make your feel- 
ings the test of God's character and attributes, and 
undeify him because your emotional nature does not 
recognize and respond to his presence? How can 
you feel his presence when your will denies it? You 
must cease to judge God by your feelings, and take 
hold of the fact as attested by his word and your 
own reason. Let God be true, and every man, and 
especially the Devil, a liar. Take issue with Satan ; 
plant yourself firmly on the Word ; fight the battle 
manfully in your sensibility, even ' f the good fight of 
faith," and you will not long be in doubt of his pres- 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 95 

ence ; you shall know it as the most precious of all 
realities in human experience. 

Lie JSTo. 3. 

rf The promises of God do not belong to you" is 
another of the malicious falsehoods which Satan in- 
sinuates into the hearts of Christ's disciples. 

The Bible is, substantially, a book of promises. It 
begins with the promise of a Savior, and ends with 
w whosoever will, let him come and take the water of 
life freely." These promises are among God's eter- 
nal dec?*ees, to execute which, the whole power of his 
government is pledged. They are the coin of God's 
kingdom of grace, stamped in heaven, issued to men. 
They furnish the weapons wherewith the believer 
may conquer every foe. By them the Father speaks 
his own life to his children. These promises are 
given to all men to believe. God is no respecter of 
persons ; and as he invites all to come and live, so 
he offers his promises to all. 

Now, what does Satan attempt to do ? He insinu- 
ates the falsehood into the hearts of men, that these 
promises do not belong to them ! They believe him ; 
professed Christians commit themselves to the lie ; 
and the Bible becomes to them like a desert where 
are no springs, no streams, no trees, no flowers, no 
birds, no life, or rather, where all these exist only 
apparently, in the mocking splendor of the mirage. 



96 satan's devices and 

Even Jesus, the central figure in the Bible, the very 
Tree of Life, on whose branches ther^ is fruit enough 
for the "healing" of the nations, and in whom the 
promises are all " yea and amen," becomes as a root 
out of a dry ground, with no form or comeliness to 
attract the soul from the things which corrupt and 
destroy it. Up from the fountain of God's infinite 
benevolence, come welling the precious words, 
" Ask, and ye shall receive," " All things are yours," 
"How shall he not with him freely give us all 
things?" and yet many a thirsty soul is made to say, 
"Alas! they are not for me." 

It is a lie, and nothing but a lie. They are for 
him, especially and specifically for him. He may as 
well say, the air he breathes, or the fruit he gathers 
from his orchard, is not for him. But he feels so ; 
yes, because he accepts the falsehood. And thus 
the whole church is crippled by throwing away the 
promises of God. 

But what is to be done ? Done ! There is but 
one thing that can be done. Away with the lie of 
Satan ; resist it and him unto the death. John 
Bunyan says he had "many a pull with Satan for 
John 6 : 37, f whosoever cometh unto me I will in no 
wise cast out.'" You may have many a pull with 
Satan when you claim the promises ; but fear not ; 
Jesus will give you strength. Break from the lie ; 
stand by the Divinely-recorded, blood-sealed, and 
oath-confirmed fact, that the promises are yours ; nor 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 97 

flinch for a moment, though your soul should quiver 
in the struggle like a ship strained through every tim- 
ber in a hurricane. Stand by it, w though the earth be 
removed, and though the mountains be carried into 
the midst of the sea," and victory will be sure. 

Lie JS/b. 4. 

"At all events, the promises of God are not yours 
now — certainly not till you die." 

This is an artful pretense of the adversary. The 
promises can avail us little in this our time of need, 
unless we may claim them now. This Satan knows ; 
and if he can make this lie succeed, we are enslaved 
to him while on earth. Many seem taken in this 
snare. They have adopted the idea that religion is 
to save the soul from hell and sin in another world. 
They live here as other men do, and hope the prom- 
ises of God will be fulfilled in their salvation at 
death. But we are required to live a new life here, 
to follow Christ, to be the " light of the world," to 
be w dead to sin and alive unto God ; " and we can 
not possibly do this except as we are supported by 
the fulfilled promises of Gocf. Let every Christian, 
then, cling to the promises for present, needed grace. 
God will be no more ready to fulfill the promise for 
pardon when death comes than he is now. He is as 
ready to give us all we need to-day, as he will be to 
give us the crown at the end. 
9 



98 satan's devices and 

Lie No. 5. 

Satan often insinuates into the minds of Christians 
the falsehood that the promises of God do not mean 
so much as they may seem to — that they are to be 
taken in a limited sense. 

The practical feeling of those who are ensnared by 
this device is, that the promise, "My grace is suffi- 
cient for thee," is only sufficient for some things, at 
some times. Grace will do something, but the 
world will, after all, have the mastery. They feel 
that they may, perhaps, have the presence of God at 
times, but do not expect him to abide with them ; 
that he will save them from vulgar and gross sins, 
perhaps, but not that he will keep them "unspotted 
from the world," and give them the consciousness 
that their ways please him. In like way, all the 
essential promises are, by unbelief, brought down 
from their Divine meaning to a human standard. 
This is a subtle expedient of the adversary to dis- 
lodge the believer entirely from his hold upon God 
through his promises. If the Lord is not to be 
trusted to do all he engages to do, to fulfill his whole 
word, who can tell for what he may be trusted? Can 
we change the terms of God's promise, and then 
rely upon him to perform it? It is no longer his 
promise, but our substitute for it. If we change the 
promise, we give it all up; we dishonor God; we 
deny his attributes ; we K limit the Holy One of 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 99 

Israel," and "tempt the Lord." We shatter the 
foundations of our faith, and our confidence becomes 
a miserable presumption. 

If men would not remain poor, withered, and dead 
branches of the Vine, they must abandon this false- 
hood. No such impeachment of God's faithfulness 
must be allowed. Rather, let every man accept God's 
challenge, and prove him, and see if he will not K open 
the windows of heaven, and pour out the blessing till 
there is not room to receive it ; " see if he will not 
" do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or 
think." Hold the promise at par, and never consent 
to its depreciation even to the fraction of a mill. 
Dishonor not God. His words are full of meaning. 
When he pledges you a " well of living waters," do 
not go as if you were burdening his benevolence, and 
ask for a single drop. " Open thy mouth wide, and 
he will fill it." We interpret no other friend after 
such a fashion. Nay, we would not acknowledge as 
an earthly friend, at all, one who would mock our 
necessities with large and glowing promises, only a 
tithe of which he would perform. Resist the subtle 
tempter, and cling to the Faithful Promiser, as sure 
to fulfill his gracious words " unto the uttermost." 
Find the promise your soul needs, and present it in 
confidence at the mercy seat, and it will be honored. 

These will suffice, perhaps, for an illustration of 
the falsehoods by which Satan seeks to cripple the 



100 satan's devices and 

church of God. His lies are numerous, subtle, com- 
plicated. Each one must study his own case ; and, 
seeing by what manner of falsehood the living word 
and the luminous face of Jesus are hidden from his 
view, he should resist it with a faith like Abraham's, 
and with supplication like Jacob's. 

The lies of Satan often penetrate our theology and 
our philosophy, as well as our religious experience ; 
and they all work toward hiding both our sins and 
our Savior from us ; toward a self-righteous morality, 
instead of the righteousness which is of God by faith. 

There are false sentiments, imbedded in the mind 
of the church, which are working out the greatest 
evils on a vast scale. Of these, perhaps none is to 
be more deplored than that which makes the Chris- 
tian world feel that the children must be expected to 
grow up in sin, and be converted only in adult life. 
We have believed this, notwithstanding the warning 
of God to them, to w remember their Creator in the 
days of their youth, before the evil days come," and 
notwithstanding the special invitation of Christ that 
the little ones be brought to him, and in violation 
of all just views of the importance and power of 
early moral training. How subtle is this device of 
Satan, to gain time to set their characters in wicked- 
ness ; to establish them in ruinous habits, and so to 
draw them into the whirl of life, that they will 
cease to think w r ith any pleasure of the things of 
God! 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 101 



CHAPTEE XV, 

THE FIERY DARTS OF THE WICKED ONE ILLUSTRATED BY A 
SKETCH OF A REMARKABLE CASE. 

The shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery 
darts of the wicked one. — Eph, 6: 16. 

Lsr ancient warfare, darts, made of combustible 
material, w^ere set on fire, and thrown at the enemy, 
with the hope that they would burn as well as kill. 
Paul, in his description of the Christian armor (Eph. 
6 :), urges the use of " the shield of faith, wherewith 
ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the 
wicked one." We must, therefore, conclude that 
Satan uses some such burning missiles, doubly 
charged with moral evil, in his warfare against Chris- 
tian believers. Illustrative of his fiery darts, we 
will first relate an anecdote of 

"Father Carpenter" of New Jersey, 

a man wonderfully taught of the Spirit, who long 
since rested from his labors, after seeing thousands 
hopefully converted through his instrumentality. 
The facts were detailed to me by an elder in my 
church, who was himself a spiritual child, and an 
intimate acquaintance of Mr. Carpenter. 
9 * 



102 satak's devices and 

An excellent and. conscientious woman, well known 
to a large circle of Christian friends, had, for twelve 
years, been weighed down to the earth with the con- 
viction that she had committed the unpardonable sin. 
Her friends, who had been familiar with her history, 
were fully confident that she had done no such thing, 
and were greatly interested to help her out of what 
they believed was the snare of the Devil. They 
labored hard to persuade her to detail the circum- 
stances by which she was led, as she supposed, to 
blaspheme the Holy Ghost ; but none of them could 
prevail upon her to open the case. She felt that it 
was of no use, and she could not bring her mind to it. 

At length, w Father Carpenter," hearing particularly 
of her case, and knowing beforehand her reluctance 
to tell the story of her fall, went to her house. He 
introduced himself to the lady, made known his 
errand, and then entered boldly upon his work by 
telling her that she mast relate to him all her religious 
history. " O Mr. Carpenter, I can not do it," was 
her reply. "Madam" said he, "you have got to tell 
me. My Master has sent me here, and I shall never 
leave your house till you do. You shall board me till 
I die, or tell me all!" Thus saying, he began to 
remove his over-coat and make himself at home. 
She saw and felt that he was in earnest, and finally, 
with a sigh, said, "Well, if I must, I must." 

She went back to her early life, and traced her 
religious impressions up to a time when she thought 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY, 103 

she gave herself to her Savior, who then seemed to 
smile upon her and fill her soul with the joys of his 
salvation. Her feet seemed upon the rock, and a 
new song was in her mouth. She became interested, 
and labored for the salvation of others ; was often in 
revivals of religion, and was evidently useful in the 
work of winning souls to Christ. Here she sighed 
again, as she related how, in the midst of a revival 
scene, and almost while praying for the conversion 
of sinners, she was overwhelmed with the idea, sud- 
denly sprung upon her, that she had blasphemed the 
Holy Ghost. A voice within her, as it were, charged 
it upon her, and a rush of hateful and blasphemous 
thoughts confirmed the impression that the fatal deed 
was done. Her sensibility was pierced as with an 
arrow, and instantly her peace was destroyed and 
her hope blasted. It was a fiery dart. She yield- 
ed herself to the conviction that this was, indeed, 
the unpardonable sin, actually committed ; and, for 
twelve years, she had been groaning in her 
despair. 

Father Carpenter saw how it was. Satan had 
driven into her soul a fiery dart, which she had 
failed *to repel with the shield of faith. The wound 
naturally created a revulsion in her emotions, and 
she believed the lie. She committed her will to it as 
a truth, and thus turned the key of her prison-house 
upon herself. 

The good man saw that it would probably do no 



104 satan's devices and 

good to reason with her. The only hope was to dis- 
lodge the falsehood from her mind. He therefore 
turned his back to the lady, and addressed himself 
to Satan after this manner : w O thou father of lies, 
thou accuser of the brethren ! O thou god of this 
world, who dost blind the minds of men, and hide 
from them the face of Jesus Christ ! O thou roaring 
lion, who goest about seeking whom thou mayest 
devour ! O thou tempter of the Son of God ! O 
thou murderer from the beginning ! wherefore hast 
thou kept this daughter of Abraham in bondage, lo> 
these twelve years? Come out of her, and let her go 
in peace ! " 

While Father Carpenter thus boldly w rebuked the 
devourer," and, by faith, bade him release his prey, 
the spell was broken, and the good lady came out of 
her prison, shouting praises to God for her deliver- 
ance. 

An excellent brother and officer in the church 
of Christ gives me the following account of the 
manner in which his own soul was pierced with the 
fiery darts of Satan. It happily does not appear 
that he yielded to the adversary, as did the lady in 
the foregoing account. 

Before his conversion, and while he was earnestly 
inquiring after the Redeemer, he was stung with the 
thought, which was made to seem his own, that, so 
far from wishing to be a Christian, he was willing to 
make his bed in hell, and curse God forever, and sell 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 105 

his Savior for less than thirty pieces of silver. 
For weeks together, his mind was so pressed with 
blasphemous thoughts and feelings, that he could 
avoid uttering them only by holding his tongue 
between his teeth when the temptation arose. Then, 
as if to force him by argument to speak blasphemy, 
Satan confronted him with the feeling which seemed 
as real as life, that his eternal state was settled; 
that he was, as to his state of mind, already in hell, 
and might as well, at once, " curse God and die." He 
cried for help ; and, as if to answer him, Satan, 
appearing as an angel of light, withdrew the multitude 
of his darts for a season, giving him relief, and so, 
relative comfort, and suggested that he might now 
indulge hope and believe himself a Christian ! A 
ray of light from above exposed the trick of the 
deceiver, and showed him how easily he might, at 
that point, have begun building his spiritual house 
upon the sand ! The danger he had thus escaped 
quickened him to cry out more earnestly unto God 
for his salvation. And now appeared his Savior, 
saying, "Thy sins are forgiven thee; go in peace." 
But the enemy pursued him still with his fiery 
darts, which, for a season, fell harmless at his feet. 
Coming, however, with great wrath, Satan seemed 
to say, w I will have you yet," with a voice so audible 
that his own tongue replied aloud, "No, you will 
not ; for Jesus is my Deliverer." Even while he stood 
up to unite with the church, and enter into "the 



106 satan's devices and 

brotherly covenant," Satan made a final and desperate 
assault upon him, filling his mind with the most hate- 
ful and blasphemous thoughts toward God and his 
church, till it seemed to him as if he should sink 
through the floor. 

For years, this brother was much of the time in the 
most intense agony of mind, weeping and mourning, 
and feeling as if he must die in the struggle. It was 
no marvel to him that Luther should hurl his ink- 
stand at the head of Satan. The experience of such 
men as Bunyan and Baxter will readily occur to the 
reader. 

There are many who suffer much from lustful 
thoughts and impure images, thrust upon them like 
darts, which both inflame and pierce the sensibility, 
and throw the mind into an agony of grief and 
sorrow T . The enemy pursues them so relentlessly 
with this kind of weapon, that they often conclude 
that their hearts are too unclean for the Spirit to 
dwell in, and that they must abandon all hope in his 
mercj r . They are ashamed to carry such things to 
Christ ; they find it impossible to rid themselves of 
them, and they stand and suffer until God rebukes 
the adversary. They need to learn that the shield 
of faith is given them to quench even such fiery 
darts. 

It should be said here, that these missiles some- 
times drive men to insanity. The charge of blas- 
pheming the Holy Ghost is adroitly thrust upon the 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 107 

soul ; the will commits itself to it as true ; hope 
dies, of course, and all seems lost ; the brain becomes 
morbid, and reason gives way. It is not the result 
of receiving the gospel, but of believing Satan's lie. 
It is as illogical to argue from this against Chris- 
tianity, as it would be to attempt to disprove astron- 
omy by the insanity of one whose brain had been 
turned by too exclusive gazing at the stars. 



108 Satan's devices and 



CHAPTEE XVI. 

SATAN AS THE "ACCUSER OF THE BRETHREN." 

And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and 
strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ : for the 
accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day 
and night. — Rev. 12 : 10. 

The verse preceding that above quoted shows that 
this accuser was "that old serpent, called the Devil, 
and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world." The 
accusations of the adversary are, of course, false ; 
but, if believed as true, they are as fatal, for the 
time being, as if they were true. If we include 
among them the lies of Satan upon which we have 
already dwelt, his accusations against Christ, his 
word and providence, made to the believer, we can 
not fail to see how the whole gospel must be effect- 
ually obstructed ; and how, by the casting down of 
the accuser, "salvation, strength, the kingdom of 
God, and the power of his Christ," must be at once 
realized, both on the scale of the individual believer 
and of the world. To have any force with professed 
believers, the accusations of Satan must seem to come 
from God ; and perhaps when it is said that Satan 
" accused them before our God day and night," it is 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 109 

meant, that he makes his accusations appear to the 
accused to come from God. It is a fact that he does 
so, and that this would fall in with his purpose ; 
whereas, to make them literally before the Omnis- 
cient One would defeat his designs. 

The accusations of Satan are numerous and subtle. 
Many most sincere and honest persons find them- 
selves accused of wrong motives in their attempts to 
serve God. They would not for the world do wrong ; 
their consciences are tender ; they abhor wickedness 
in themselves and in others. The accuser steps in 
and insinuates that their motives are not right in the 
sight of the Holy One, and they can not, therefore, 
expect his favor. They accept the accusation, and 
go into condemnation, deprived of communion with 
God. 

Sometimes Satan falsely accuses Christians of neg- 
lecting their duty to God, and thus breaks up their 
communion with him. You may find many a dis- 
ciple with prostrate health, and with a burden of 
care in the family, which leaves no time or strength 
to visit the sanctuary, or scarcely the closet, or to 
read the Bible and pray at appointed seasons. Their 
weary bodies demand more rest than can be taken. 
Satan comes and accuses them with sinfully neglect- 
ing the daily worship of God. Not realizing the fact 
that, in spirit, they may worshipfully rest their 
wearied hearts upon him and be refreshed and quick- 
ened while they are bearing their heavy burdens, 
10 



110 satan's devices and 

they heed the accusation as if it were from their 
Savior himself, and go into painful self-condemnation 
and reproach. They should see that the faithful per- 
formance of the daily duty he gives them, is accept- 
able to Christ, and, if performed for him, will not 
deprive them of his presence and grace. 

Others are accused of such unworthiness that they 
dare not claim the promises. They admit the accu- 
sation as coming from Christ, and are insnared. 
Neither salvation, nor strength, nor the kingdom of 
God, nor the power of Christ, can come to them till 
the accuser is cast down, and they see that the gos- 
pel is for the unworthy. 

Many are accused of sin in that they seem so much 
tempted to sin. Those who love sin are scarcely 
conscious of the difference between temptation and 
transgressions But in becoming Christians, men 
must renounce sin and set their hearts to resist it. 
Although this is done, Satan crowds temptation upon 
the soul, and then turns round and makes his accusa- 
tion on the ground of so much temptation. Many 
excellent Christians are easily insnared by this 
means, because they do not properly regard the dis- 
tinction between temptation and actual sin. We 
remember once preaching a sermon, the object of 
which was to draw out and enforce this important 
distinction. An English lady of much cultivation 
was greatly affected by the truth, and came out of 
her despondency into liberty, exclaiming, as she threw 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. Ill 

up her hands, "I have been in bondage all my life, 
because I have not, till now, understood the differ- 
ence between being tempted to sin and sinning." 
The accuser, in her case, was cast down, and salva- 
tion and strength came to her longing heart. 

Not a few are accused of having blasphemed the 
Holy Ghost. Ministers understand what is meant 
when their parishioners come and cautiously inquire 
what that fatal sin consists in, and how those who 
have committed it will feel. To believe the accusa- 
tion is fatal, till the accuser is cast down. 

Again : Christians are often annoyed and ob- 
structed, in their religious life, by the accusation 
that their entire religious experience is a failure. 
" You were never sufficiently convicted of sin ; " " You 
have never been thoroughly converted ; " " You do 
not believe the Bible, especially its severe and dis- 
criminating doctrines ; " " You have no evidence that 
you are a child of God;" "You are afraid to die." 
Thus the accusations run. Those who yield to them 
are full of uneasiness, and have no peace with them- 
selves or with God. His salvation, strength, the king- 
dom and power of Christ, are effectually obstructed. 
Let the accuser be cast down, and a loud voice shall be 
heard from heaven proclaiming deliverance. 

The Christian will say, w What is to be done with 
these accusations ? lean not remove them." Satan 
intends by them to keep you from Christ. Defeat 
his purpose, then, by going at once to the Savior 



112 satan's devices and 

with them. If you doubt whether you ought not, 
and must not, in truth, condemn yourself, go honestly 
and confidently to Jesus, and ask him to search your 
heart. Do not judge yourself, especially by your 
feelings, but let Christ judge you. Be not accused 
away from him. If your will says, " Get thee hence, 
Satan," b^not troubled, only believe. If the thou- 
sand and one suggestions and accusations by which 
Satan seeks to destroy the Christian's faith were true, 
he would not make them. He would seek other 
means of accomplishing his object. He does not aim 
to disturb the guilty with their sins, but rather to 
deepen their stupidity. But it seems as if the accu- 
sations were from the Holy Spirit, and must not be 
ignored. Let two things be remembered, then, in 
this connection: 1. The Spirit is never an accuser, 
but rather a gracious Friend, who draws his disciples 
by love away from sin to God. 2. It is never the 
intent or effect of his admonitions to repel the soul 
from Christ, and to keep it in darkness, in doubt, or 
distrust. Whatever has that tendency — as Satan's 
accusations have — is of the Devil, not of God. If 
the reader be embarrassed to determine whether the 
accusation is from below or from above, he may find 
the light he needs in Chapter XIX. 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 113 



CHAPTEE XVII. 

WHEREIN SATAN IS CONSIDERED AS THE TEMPTER. 

For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, 
lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labor be in vain. — 
1 Thess. 3 : 5. 

The deep solicitude here expressed, lest even 
apostolic labor should be rendered vain by the 
tempter, may well put all men upon their guard 
against temptation. 

To be tempted is, indeed, a part of the Christian's 
inheritance. The disciple, in this respect, is not 
above his Master. Character must be tested at every 
point. We are to be winnowed and refined; our 
faith, our patience, our love, and our obedience, are 
all to be tried, that they may be " found unto praise, 
and honor, and glory at the appearing of Jesus 
Christ." Even the promises of God presuppose the 
conflict, while they pledge the victory over trial. 
They assure us that the floods shall not go over us, 
nor the flame kindle upon us (Isa. 43 : 2) , though we 
must pass through them; that tribulation, which 
must come, shall work patience (Rom. 5:3); that a 
way of escape shall be opened to our faith out of 
every temptation, before it exceeds our ability to 
10* 



114 satan's devices and 

bear it (1 Cor. 10 : 13) ; that the Kefiner's fire will 
only remove the dross (Mai. 3:). 

Temptation has its uses. It develops men's char- 
acters, and brings them out as the light of the world 
and salt of the earth. We know Job best through his 
conflicts with Satan. We know the fidelity of Abra- 
ham, and the strength of his faith, through his trials. 
We know Daniel best in the lion's den ; and his breth- 
ren in the furnace ; and Bunyan in Bedford jail. 

Satan does not, of course, solicit men to do evil as 
evil. He presents evil as good, and good as evil, 
and urges men to do only that which he seeks, by 
all possible and plausible disguises, to make them 
believe is right and good. He did not propose to 
Eve to do a wicked thing as such, but a thing by 
which her eyes would be opened, and she would be 
made wise. He appealed to her appetite for good 
food, to her taste for the beautiful, and to her desire 
for knowledge, and assured her that no harm would 
come of partaking of the prohibited fruit. 

The forms of temptation, both to the righteous 
and the wicked, are innumerable. The lies, whereby 
Satan keeps men from becoming Christians (Chap. 
Xn.), indicate the drift of the adversary's effort with 
unconverted men. He appeals also to their neces- 
sities, as he did to those of our Lord, when he was 
a hungered, and induces them to turn the w stones " 
of their integrity "into bread," by sacrificing it for 
gain. Alas ! they forget to say, w It is written, Man 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 115 

shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that 
proceedeth out of the mouth of God." 

He takes men also upon the wings of their imagi- 
nations, into the exceeding high mountain which 
overlooks the kingdoms of the world in all their 
glory, and excites their minds with visions of wealth, 
and fame, and power; and, thereupon, induces them 
to set their hearts supremely upon obtaining the 
alluring prize, thus bowing the knee in worship to 
him, and laying the foundation of their moral and 
spiritual ruin. They forget that it is written, " Thou 
shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt 
thou serve," and do not say, "Get thee behind me, 
Satan." 

The Christian is often tempted to establish his <lis- 
cipleship by improper means, as Christ, his Messiah- 
ship. "If thou be the Son of God, command that 
these stones be made bread." In like way, Satan 
practically says to the disciple, "If you are a Chris- 
tian, prove it by feeling as Paul did ; by such an 
experience as Isaiah's, or Daniel's ; or by doing some 
wonderful work, which will prove to the world that 
you are born again." 

Satan also tempts the disciple, as he did the 
Master, to presumption. "If thou be the Son of 
God, cast thyself down : for it is written, He shall 
give his angels charge concerning thee : and in their 
hands shall they bear thee up, lest at any time thou 
dash thy foot against a stone." Jesus answered, "It 



116 satan's devices and 

is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy 
God." We are taken in this snare whenever we cast 
ourselves upon the mercy of God, and do not, at the 
same time, sink our own will in his. 

Another device of the tempter is to draw the mind* 
of the disciple back under the power of old sinful 
habits. If a young Christian has formerly been an 
inebriate, or a covetous, or a proud, or a vain, or a 
willful, or a deceitful, or a peculiarly selfish man, — if 
he has been the victim of skepticism, of indifference 
and carelessness, or of evil companions, — he will have 
many a hard battle to fight with the tempter to avoid 
being swept down again under these old untoward 
influences. To gain a permanent victory here, will 
require all the decision of an honest farmer, of whom 
the following story is told, as well as all the divine 
upholding which he doubtless experienced : He had 
sold a large quantity of wheat to be delivered. The 
purchaser, relying on his well-known integrity, left 
him to measure up and forward the grain. While 
measuring it, as he filled the half bushel and struck 
it off evenly, this suggestion each time was thrust 
into his mind — "Strike a little under, and you icill 
save a bushel before you are done." He resisted it, 
of course, and still it kept coming. At last, the 
honest old man turned his head, and said, "Satan, if 
you don't let me alone, I will heap the bushel every 
time" 

With Christ for his Deliverer, let not the earnest 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 117 

disciple fear the enemy : pirates do not pursue empty 
and worthless vessels. 

Many of the devices of the tempter will be more 
strongly and vividly seen in the actual life of the 
tempted disciple, than by any formal statement of 
them ; and we can not do better than consult the 
experiences of such a man as John Bunyan. 

Bunyan was subjected to two long seasons of 
temptation, each lasting over two years. Speaking 
of the assaults of the tempter in these periods, he 
says, "My soul was like a broken vessel, driven as 
with the winds, and tossed sometimes headlong into 
despair : sometimes upon the covenant of works, and 
sometimes to wish that the new covenant and the 
conditions thereof might, so far as I thought myself 
concerned, be turned another way and changed. 
But in all these, I was as those that jostle against the 
rocks — more broken, scattered, and rent. O the 
unthought-of imaginations, frights, fears, and terrors, 
that are effected by a thorough application of guilt 
yielding to desperation ! * * * I had cut myself 
off by my transgressions, and left myself neither foot- 
hold nor hand-hold among all the stays and props in 
the precious Word of life. And truly I did now feel 
myself to sink into a gulf, as a house whose founda- 
tion is destroyed. * * * These things would so 
break and confound my spirit that I could not tell 
what to do. I thought at times they would have 
broken my wits." 



118 SATAN'S DEVICES AXD 

Hear also the man after God's own heart : w Thy 
wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me 
with all thy waves ; I am shut up ; I can not come 
forth; I am afflicted and ready to die. While I suf- 
fer thy terrors, I am distracted. Thy fierce wrath 
goeth over me ; thy terrors have cut me off." 

After a season, in which he was so taken with the 
love and mercy of God that he could scarcely contain 
himself till he got home, Bunyan says, "I was much 
followed by this scripture : Simon, Simon, behold, 
Satan hath desired to have you;" and he thought 
the voice came to acquaint him that a cloud and 
storm were again coming upon him. " A few 
days later," he saj^s, "a very great storm came 
down upon me, which handled me twenty times 
worse than all I had met with before : it came steal- 
ing upon me, now by one piece, then by another : 
first, all my comfort was taken from me ; then dark- 
ness seized upon me ; after which floods of blas- 
phemies, both against God, Christ, and the Scrip- 
tures, were poured upon me, to my great confusion 
and astonishment." He felt as if he were possessed 
of the Devil, and were sinking in despair. The 
provocations which beset him seemed too terrible to 
be spoken of. The billows surged about him most, 
fearfully, even when he attempted to worship God, 
and to fix his mind upon, and fasten himself to the 
truth. Satan would challenge and threaten him as 
with literal speech. The voice of the tempter rung 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 119 

in his ears, and seemed the very utterance of his own 
soul — " Sell Christ, sell him, sell him, sell him ; " and 
at length, weary of resisting, his heart seemed to say, 
f Let him go if he will ; " and down he fell again into 
the abyss of guilt and despair. 

Then began a great strife of scripture against 
scripture in his soul. Trying to hold on to the 
promises, the threatenings would strike him like the 
lightning. If the gospel offered him comfort, the 
law, with its sharp sword, would strike it dead. If 
he would hope in God's mercy, the tempter would 
insist that he was but another Esau, who had sold his 
birthright ; until, at length, the promise waxed 
stronger than the word of condemnation in his spirit, 
and Jesus showed him the precious words, Mercy 
rejoiceth over judgment, and gave him rest. 

Thus the most fearful trials, and the most precious 
deliverances, mingled in the experience of Bunyan, 
till God had taught, and refined, and prepared him 
to give to the world his Pilgrim's Progress, a book 
second only to the Bible itself in its power to aid the 
soul in the escape from sin, and in the homeward 
journey to the Celestial City. 

It is needless to dwell further upon the forms of 
temptation, as they are not material ; it is the victory 
over them which is important. It is unnecessary 
to speak of the bold and daring temptations whereby 
the Achans, the Gehazis, and the Judases come to 
head the calendar of crime. Such men are Satan's 
willing subjects, and do not wait to be inveigled, by 



120 satan's devices and 

subtle devices, into his service. Few Christians 
know as much of the severity of temptation as did 
Bunyan. If men were more in earnest to live out 
the full Christian life, and were determined, they 
would know more of the " depths of Satan," and of 
the heights and the glory of Christ's salvation. 

Now, in view of all the schemes of the tempter, 
there is just one thing, on our part, to be done. To 
all his solicitations, come from what quarter they 
may, within or without, the soul must steadily and 
patiently answer, " No ; I will not yield one iota 
from the will of God. God helping me, I will not 
knowingly swerve from his requirements, though I 
walk in darkness all the way to his judgment throne. 
I will not, by the grace of God, cast away my confi- 
dence, though the trial of my faith should last, like 
Abraham's, for twenty-five years ; though, like Job, 
I should be bereft of all earthly comforts ; or be 
reduced to a poverty like my Savior's; or, like 
Daniel and his brethren, the lion's den or the fiery 
furnace await me ; or though, like Jesus, I must die 
an ignominious and cruel death, crying out in my 
despair, f My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken 
me ? ' I will insist, with Bunyan, that neither guilt nor 
hell shall take me off my work." 

This is the soul's true position before the tempter ; 
and, in that sublime and glorious attitude, we will 
endeavor, in the next chapter, to show how the 
believer shall be effectually and gloriously delivered 
from the power and depths of Satan. 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 121 



CHAPTEE XVIII. 

WHEREIN APPEARS THE CHRISTIAN'S DELIVERER. — METHOD 
OF VICTORY SHOWN. 

For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the 
works of the devil. — 1 John 3: 8. 

For the battle is not yours, but God's. — 2 Chron. 20 : 15. 

We have shown in the last chapter what is the true 
position of the believer before the tempter. The 
Christian and Satan are at issue. What will be the 
result of the conflict? Both are determined. Can 
the man stand against the Devil ? Can he do it who 
has formed his habits in the enemy's service, and 
been his willing captive all his days? 

Can he rely upon the freedom of his own will? 
Free agents are but too easily persuaded to aban- 
don their right choices, and form wrong ones. The 
reformed inebriate is free, and yet, how weak he is 
when the flames of appetite kindle upon him. Peter 
was free, and strongly determined in himself rather 
to die than yield ; yet how easily did Satan insnare 
him, and lead him on to deny his Master ! The 
world is full of free agents, who ought to stand firm 
in a right will ; yet what a mournful comment we 
have upon man's moral weakness, in the almost uni- 
11 



122 satan's devices and 

versal surrender of the race to the K lust of the flesh, 
and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" ! The 
weaker will is easily persuaded by the stronger one ; 
and Satan's is of superhuman energy. As some 
Napoleon will hold a nation under his almost 
omnipotent sway, and evoke all its resources, and 
subject them to his purposes, so Satan is able, by 
his vast power of will, to sway his scepter over a 
world of weaker minds, and to persuade them to 
enter his service and do his bidding. 

Now, in this conflict of will with Satan, no 
man will stand relying upon himself alone. This is 
equally the doctrine of the Bible, of common sense, 
and of experience. A will mightier than Satan's is 
demanded before he can be vanquished. That all- 
conquering and all-sustaining will is Christ's. 

How, then, does Jesus, the Almighty Deliverer, so 
invest our voluntary natures villi his own, so com- 
plement our powers with his life, as that, in him, we 
shall be able to stand fast against Satan, and all the 
powers of darkness? This is the question. 

It is certainly no part of Christ's plan to relieve us 
from the conflict by expelling the enemy from the 
field by physical omnipotence. God's purpose, in 
his church, i£ to achieve over Satan a great moral 
conquest worthy of himself — a conquest to which 
the grand march of events, as they roll and surge 
through the eras of history, advancing from the chaos 
of Satanic darkness and misrule to the light of the 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 123 

millennial day, shall abundantly contribute. We 
must be obedient to the Captain of our salvation, 
and "fight the good fight of faith." The solution of 
the question we are considering will be seen in the 
light of the following facts and principles : — 

1. Mind is made to influence mind; and, other 
things being equal, the power of one mind over 
another depends upon its greatness and goodness. 

The strength of the finite mind is not always in itself, 
but often in other related minds : that of the child is 
in the parent; of the wife, in the husband; of the 
friend, in the friend. A very instructive anecdote, 
illustrative of this principle, is the familiar one told 
of President Davies, of the College of New Jersey, 
and a poor victim of intemperance, of somewhat cul- 
tivated intellect, who had lost all hope of escape 
from the tyranny of his evil habit. When the latter 
despaired of any thing but a drunkard's grave and a 
miserable eternity, this good and learned man met 
him, and heard his sad lament. He said to him, " Sir, 
be of good cheer ; you can be saved. Sign the pledge, 
and I will be your strength to keep it. I will be 
your friend ; and, with a loving arm around you, I 
will hold you up. When your appetite burns, and 
you feel as if you must gratify it, come to my house, 
sit down with me in the study, or with the family in 
the parlor, and I will be a shield to you. All that I 
can do for you with my learning, my books, my 



124 satan's devices and 

experience, my sympathy, my society, my love, my 
money, I will do. You shall forget your appetite 
and master it." The tear of hope and joy had 
gathered in that despairing eye, and the astonished 
man replied, "Sir, will you do all that?" "Surely 
I will." "Then I can and will overcome." He signed 
the pledge ; and as long as the president lived, he 
kept it. His strength was in the good will and noble 
qualities of President Davies. 

Conceive, now, of our blessed and glorious Lord 
himself coming to the sinner, whom he has already 
convicted of his lost condition till he is in despair of 
salvation by his own righteousness, and saying to 
him, in a voice full of compassion and sweet as 
music, "In me is thy help. Behold in me the 
sinner's Friend. Trust in me ; take my yoke, which 
is easy, and my burden, which is light. Come to me 
with all your sins, your infirmities, your ignorance, 
and your weakness, and I will give you rest. All 
that infinite knowledge, sympathy, power, and love 
can do for you, I will do. I will betroth you unto 
me in faithfulness, in loving kindness, and in mercies 
forever. My strength shall be made perfect in your 
weakness, and no weapon formed against you shall 
prosper. All mine shall be thine in joint heirship 
forever; and because I live, ye shall live also." 
Here, surely, is hope for the weakest ; and with more 
than the enthusiastic assurance of the disciple of 
President Davies, may the sinner cast himself upon 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 125 

the promises of Christ, and know that, by the work- 
ing of that infinite mind on his own, he shall be 
effectually redeemed from all the wiles and power 
of the enemy. 

2. When the character of Christ comes to be 
revealed to the eye of faith, by the manifestation of 
the Spirit, the response in the believer's heart is, 
w Whom have I in heaven but thee ? and there is none 
upon earth I desire in comparison with thee." The 
love of Christ becomes the absorbing passion of the 
soul, as with Paul ; and the very dispositions of the 
mind are regenerated and winged for heaven. It 
becomes altogether possible to glory in persecution 
and tribulation, and to be made conformable unto his 
death, if so we may attain to more of the excellency 
of the knowledge of Christ, and honor his name. 

3. When Christ reveals himself to his disciples in 
his relations to them, his power over the soul becomes 
still more significant and complete. 

The inebriate was doubtless impressed by the 
known excellence of President Davies beforehand, 
but it could avail him nothing, till the good man 
manifested himself to him in the relation of a per- 
sonal friend and helper. JDt^was this which saved 
him. 

So, when Christ manifests himself to his disciples 
personally, as their God and Father, as Husband, 
11* 



126 satan's devices and 

Brother, Friend, Life, All ; as enfolding them in his 
great, loving heart ; as cherishing them as the very 
riches of his own inheritance ; as identifying their 
interests with his own forever ; when he makes all this 
real to their inner consciousness by the eternal Spirit 
dwelling in them, — why should they not exult with 
a joy unspeakable and full of glory, and in him be 
stronger than the strong man armed? 

4. "When Christ is thus manifested to us by the 
Spirit, his truth looms up before the mind as a living 
and irresistible power for our defense. 

We necessarily interpret a man's words by his 
character and his attributes, as we apprehend them. 
If a king speaks, his words have a kingly meaning. 
In like way, we shall interpret the words of God. 
When he opens himself to us, he opens to us, also, 
the infinite meaning and force of his words, so that it 
is no longer a marvel to us that his word called the 
universe into being. We can see how he can speak 
to things that are not as though they were, how he 
can call the dead from their graves, and uphold all 
things by the word of his power. We have but to 
say to Satan, "It is written? to strike him down as 
with a thunderbolt. The thing that is written, if we 
will know it, is as efficient and irresistible in our 
behalf as it was in the behalf of Christ in the day of 
his temptation, for it expresses the will, the purpose, 
the decree of the Almighty. The promises of God, 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 127 

in this way, are, to the believer, all alive and instinct 
with reality and blessing. Through them, we rise 
out of the bondage of sin into the glorious liberty of 
the children of God, into a participation of the divine 
nature, having escaped, through them also, the cor- 
ruption that is in the world through lust. The prom- 
ises are no longer dead letters ; they are leaves from 
the tree of life, they are grapes from Eshcol, they 
are the wine, and milk, and honey of the kingdom. 
They are all yea and amen in Christ, opening foun- 
tains in the desert and rivers in the dry places. The 
word of the gospel is the very power and wisdom of 
God unto salvation. No enemy can stand against it, 
if faith insist upon the whole divine meaning thereof. 
To an unbelieving mind, the Bible is as if written in 
sympathetic ink, which remains invisible. But when 
brought before a mind all a-glow with faith and love, 
the writing comes out in clearest characters, and 
proves itself to be indeed "the word of God with 
power." 

5. When Christ manifests himself personally to us, 
the soul finds its entire wants perfectly met in him ; 
and this, in effect, removes that from the mind which 
Satan must find in us, in order to make his tempta- 
tions stick. If a man i^nungry, and knows not 
how or where to obtain the only proper food, he 
may be easily induced to eat "that which is not 
good." His excited appetite will make him corre- 



128 satan's devices and 

spondingly susceptible to the offer of food of any 
kind ; but, if his appetite is entirely satisfied with 
the true food, it will not be easy to draw him away 
after meaner supplies. If a man dwells in a garden 
abounding with every variety of luscious fruit, what 
temptation need he feel to eat the w apples of Sodom," 
the "grapes of gall," whose clusters are w bitter," and 
their wine "poisonous as the venom of asps " ? 

Man is constituted with wants, the supply of which 
is not in himself — wants imperative and ineradica- 
ble. His highest blessedness comes with that good 
which meets these fundamental necessities of his 
nature. In his natural state, man does not know 
and enjoy the supreme good. Sin hides it from him. 
He lifts up his voice, and inquires after it, saying, 
"Who will show us any good?" (Ps. 4:6). The 
world may promise, but yields it not. Wealth cor- 
rodes and turns to dust. Honor is empty. Society 
is pleasant, but its level is too low. Knowledge 
answers only in part. Home, if it be home, refreshes 
some departments of our being while it lasts, but 
there is still a void. Curiosity carries the traveler 
round the earth, and his tears are but the bitterer 
that there are no more worlds for him to explore. 

Nothing can satisfy man's capacious, hungry soul 
till there comes to him the heavenly vision, revealing 
to his moral and spiritual nature the Son of God, his 
Redeemer and Savior. In that brightness above the 
sun, astonished and delighted, he will exclaim, 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 129 

"Eureka" — I have found it, I have found it. Yes, 
he has found it, and it is life, eternal life to his soul, 
the full and glorious complement of his being. He 
seeks no longer. The sea within him is at rest. As 
the lungs are satisfied with pure air, and do not ache 
for a better substance to fill them, — as the eye is satis- 
fied with the pure light of heaven, — so the soul which 
has found Jesus, through his personal manifestation, 
has ally and wants no more. To please him, to honor 
him, to know him more and more, to follow and 
enjoy him, — this is enough. To find Christ is to 
find that life which is "hid with God," the life which 
even Satan can not destroy. 

6. It comes to pass as a result of this revelation of 
God in Christ to the soul, that wrong motives lose 
their power over the mind, and right ones rise to 
their legitimate supremacy; and the will, thus, 
comes to stand against the tempter with something 
of heavenly firmness. The whole force of wrong 
motives is broken by the revelation which the mind 
now has of their utter folly, madness, and wicked- 
ness. On the other hand, in a revealed and present 
Christ, center all possible right motives. Of the 
strength of these motives, the will partakes, and the 
whole soul stands firmly and without fear, rejoicing 
in the Lord and in the power of his might. 

7. When the soul comes to abide in the Deliverer, 



130 Satan's devices and 

and to behold all things from that stand-point, we 
shall find all manner of agents and agencies folding 
their strong arms around us to sustain the will in its 
true position. It were enough, indeed, that God, 
with his infinite mind, should enfold and shield us ; 
but he is pleased to make his saints and angels min- 
istering spirits to each other, and all his works to praise 
him in the hearts of his children. The strength he 
gives to each is available for all ; and that which he 
bestows upon all, for each, according to the measure 
of faith. The world, to the true believer, is full of 
the glory of God. There is, indeed, music in the 
spheres. The eye of faith, in a pure heart, sees God 
in all his works. He looks upon them from the sun ; 
his heart beats upon them in the tides ; his hand 
touches them in the breeze ; his voice salutes them 
from the sky, or, still and small, whispers answers 
of peace from the unseen, but mighty forces by which 
he makes his will felt " from the center to the utmost 
pole of things ; " and the aroma of his love is exhaled 
from all his works. 

The things which were before a snare to them shall 
now minister to the advance of his people in holiness. 
Their wealth, consecrated to him and used to bless 
the world, shall bring rivers of blessing to them- 
selves. Even the "cares of the world," borne for 
Jesus, shall not "choke the word," or render it un- 
fruitful. Even Satan himself shall be made to con- 
tribute to their growth in grace ; and they may well 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 131 

and triumphantly exclaim, " Who shall be able to 
separate us from the love of Christ ? " The per- 
suasion of Paul that nothing could do it, was most 
just. 

8. But, in the final emergency of the conflict 
between the believer and the tempter, if, by any 
means, the adversary has succeeded in confusing the 
mind of the disciple, and has wearied him, almost to 
exhaustion, by a long siege of temptation, so that 
he is ready to give up in despair, — if he have cut and 
thrust him sorely with the sword of Apollyon in the 
valley of the shadow of death, — in that pregnant 
moment, clear to the eye of Omniscience, when the 
will can bear the strain no longer, the divine, 
almighty volition of Jehovah shall issue again, as 
when he said, "Let light be," and light was, and 
strike down the tempter quicker than thought, and 
deliver the prey, whose pent-up sorrows shall be 
changed to exulting praise, thanksgiving, and the 
voice of triumph. 

Such we understand to be the method and work 
of Christ in delivering his disciples from the power 
of the tempter. Happy will he be whose faith shall 
enable him to persevere, till, in the progress of his 
experience, he shall have appropriated to his undying 
soul all the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of 
Christ, 



132 Satan's devices and 



CHAPTEE XIX. 

SATAN AS TRANSFORMED INTO AN ANGEL OF LIGHT.— PAS- 
TOR'S SKETCHES. 

For Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. — 2 Cor. 11 : 14. 

The Bible teaches that Satan, for the prosecution 
of his malicious ends, assumes the guise of truth and 
goodness. There is a necessity that he should do so, 
in order to any success in his work. The human 
mind is made to he influenced by what is true, and 
repelled by what is false. Lies, therefore, to take 
effect in minds not wholly debased, must appear to 
be truths, and Satan must be a seeming angel of 
light. 

It is in this character, we need most to be on our 
guard against the fell destroyer. If some one were 
plotting only our temporal ruin, through his angel 
manifestations, the knowledge of the fact would 
arouse our most indignant apprehension and watch- 
fulness. 

Let us attempt to expose Satan in some of his 
devices as an angel of light. 

1 . He holds before us our happiness as a motive 
of action. He knows we are made for happiness ; 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 133 

that we crave it through every susceptibility of our 
natures as the chief good, and that no appeal to us 
will find a more hearty welcome. By this means, he 
was successful with Eve. He assured her that the 
forbidden fruit would open her eyes, and secure to 
her the blessed experience of the gods. With the 
same plea, he urges on all men in ways of disobedi- 
ence. His argument with them runs thus : "You are 
made for happiness ; set your whole heart upon gain- 
ing it ; the earth is full of good ; seize it and make it 
your own ; fill your coffers with wealth, for there is 
great joy in it ; seek honor of men, for it is sweet ; 
gratify the bounding impulses of the natural life, and 
one long gala-day shall be yours." 

By such "fair speeches," he deceives the hearts of 
men, and leads them in a path far removed from that 
trodden by the self-sacrificing Savior. Satan con- 
ceals the fact that real happiness can only result 
from the conformity of our will to the will of God, 
and that the attempt to gain it by direct and selfish 
effort, is the sure way to lose it, and to involve the 
soul in moral ruin, although the pleasures of sin may, 
for a season, be enjoyed. 

2. He appeals to their sentiment of charity and 
liberality to lure men on in the path of moral ruin. 

Bigotry and intolerance are hateful. Charity is a 
heavenly virtue indeed, and liberality is beautiful as 
sunlight ; but they are capable of perversion. Why 
12 



134 SATAN'S DEVICES AND 

should not this arch enemy of man play the angel of 
light after this manner? "Be charitable in your 
judgment of human sinfulness ; there is much that is 
good in human nature ; the philanthropists are noble- 
hearted men, and must be accepted of God ; even the 
worst men often have many redeeming traits. Be 
liberal ; he that belie veth shall be saved, and it is not 
material that he should believe one creed rather than 
another ; do not put too rigid an interpretation on 
the penalty of God's law, or the threatenings of the 
Bible. God is too good to punish the wicked, for he 
knows their weakness, and remembers that they are 
dust. The age demands a liberal Christianity." 

Satan can make all this appear plausible enough to 
men who would like to have it so, and thus insnare 
them. But, by the same charitable and liberal reason- 
ing about civil law, he might say to the murderer, 
" Do not think your life in peril from the law ; the 
lawgiver is kind and merciful ; he knows your in- 
firmity, and will consider your temptation ; you only 
sought your own good ; you needed the money of 
your victim ; you only shortened his days, for he 
would soon have gone to his grave ; you have done 
many excellent things ; your impulses are generous ; 
fear not, charity will prevail, and you will not be con- 
demned." Nor will this liberal reasoning apply any 
better to natural law. It will not do charitably to 
conclude that no harm will come of eating arsenic, or 
drinking prussic acid, or dropping a few sparks into 



the believer's victory. 135 

the magazine. Such liberality would be inevitable 
death. The laws of God have an exact and change- 
less significance, which we can ignore only with infinite 
peril. There is a true doctrine of liberality, and we 
love it, and hate bigotry as, we believe, God hates it. 
But when Satan appeals to that noble sentiment to 
cheat the soul into putting light for darkness and 
darkness for light, and into substituting what men, in 
their pride and rebellion, wish to have true in the 
place of God's revealed word, we must cry out, 
Beware , lest you be found fighting against God, and 
tampering with the only possible grounds of sal- 
vation. 

3. Satan, as an angel of light, makes abundant use 
of Scripture. The Bible is the great authority of the 
Christian world, and the adversary will use it with 
all the skill and cunning of which he is master. He 
will thrust in upon the mind, in its most impressible 
moods, certain fearful passages, forcing them upon 
the attention, after the manner of God's Spirit, for 
the purpose of destroying hope and confidence. 
Alas ! how many sensitive souls has he cast down 
with such texts as these ! — ?? There remaineth no more 
sacrifice for sins ; " w He that shall blaspheme the 
Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness ; " "He is joined 
to his idols, let him alone." Sometimes he will quote 
the Scriptures to keep men at rest in their sins : " No 
man can come to me, except the Father, which hath 



136 satan's devices axd 

sent me, draw him," is used to quiet sinners in their 
passive indifference, whereas it should stimulate them 
to search eagerly after the truth and the spirit 
whereby God does draw men to Christ. What an 
onset did Satan make upon the faith of many pro- 
fessed Christians, a few years ago, by leading them 
on, by false interpretations of prophecy, to risk every 
thing upon the doctrine that the world would surely 
come to an end, on the 23d of April, A. D. 1843 ! 

4. Satan, as an angel of light, doubtless mingles, 
not a little, in revivals of religion. He does not 
oppose religion. He knows that man has a religious 
nature, which will express itself in worship. The 
more zealous he can persuade men to be in the ser- 
vice of false divinities, the better is he pleased; for 
the probabilities that they will inquire after the one 
living and true God will be correspondingly dimin- 
ished. He is no enemy to religious emotion, if it 
shall be excited in his wa}^. He does not object to 
his subjects rejoicing in the crowns they hope to wear, 
the harps they expect to play, and the golden streets 
they hope to walk, provided he can retain them in 
his willing service. 

There is great power in a religious excitement. In 
such times, Satan will labor to satisfy men with a 
mere hope of pardon, without the new birth. He will 
turn the mind away, if possible, from the true idea 
of religion, of God's character, of sin, repentance, 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 137 

and regeneration, in order to make men build their 
houses on the sand, and not on the rock. We will 
introduce here, as illustrative, a 

Pastor's /Sketch. 

In a season of religious excitement in a Western 
town, a man came to me from another denomination, 
and said, excitedly, w Sir, can you tell me whether 
there is any way in which I can come to understand 
my relations to God, and intelligently adjust what- 
ever is wrong on my part toward him, so that I may 
know that there is harmony between us ; or, have I 
got to be put into this revival mill, and be ground 
out a Christian, without knowing how I became or 
how I am to continue one? I am exceedingly 
anxious to know, for I have been through the mill 
five or six times, and my religion has never lasted 
me over six months. I am sick of it ; and I came to 
you to see if I could find out a better way." 

I was greatly interested in the inquiry and the 
spirit in which it was made, and replied thus : " God 
is the most intelligent and reasonable being in the 
universe. The controversy he has with you is 
definite, and, on his part, infinitely just. He has 
given you reason, and wishes you to follow its hon- 
est dictates, which will be found to correspond with 
his word. There is no manner of doubt that he 
wishes you to understand exactly where the contro- 
12* 



138 satan's devices axd 

versy hinges, exactly what he wants of you, and why 
he wants it ; and that, too, that you may deliberately 
and intelligently determine whether he is right, and 
whether you will, in view of the reasons he presents, 
at once become reconciled to his will, and earnestly 
devote your life, henceforth, to its honest perform- 
ance." 

His face grew radiant as this was said, and he then 
begged me to show him the way. I gave him the 
instruction any one would anticipate after reading 
these pages. He waited, thenceforward, on my min- 
istry with open eyes and ears, in which, of course, 
many things were said for his special benefit. At 
length, at the close of a Sabbath, he gathered his 
family around him, and, with the Bible in his hand, 
said to them, "Half of my life has passed away, and 
I have not understood for what end I was made, or 
how I ought to live. Thus far, I have had no other 
idea in life but to do my own pleasure, and secure 
my own happiness, here and hereafter, if I could. I 
have been a purely selfish man. It has been no part 
of my purpose in life to seek to know or do the will 
of Him who made me. I have now settled it in my 
mind to live so no longer. I design to begin, at once, 
to do my Maker's will, and to trust him to do with 
me as he pleases, now and hereafter. Here is his 
word, in which he bids me give him my heart, my 
family, my possessions, myself, my all. Here, too, 
I learn that he answers the supplications of his peo- 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 139 

pie, and teaches them his will. I propose, now, 
therefore, to consecrate myself, you, and my all to 
Jesus, and to begin to pray that I may know and do 
his will." 

He read the word, not knowing or anticipating 
what should follow. He closed the book, and turned 
and bowed by his seat to pray. As he knelt there, 
Jesus seemed sitting in the chair, waiting to fold his 
arms about the coming disciple. Those who know 
Christ can imagine the rest. That man was now a 
new creature understandingly ; and, henceforward, his 
course was that of the living Christian, onward and 
upward. 

5. As an angel of light, Satan often leads men into 
an intense devotion to moral reforms, while yet the 
heart is alienated from God. 

A Christian brother once asked our opinion of the 
character of a professed disciple of Christ, whom he 
thus described: "He is a physician, worth seventy 
thousand dollars. He is outspoken in favor of all 
reforms, including those most unpopular. He is ever 
ready to pray, and to make religious exhortations. 
He advocates and urges the highest standard of 
Christian attainment. He will not commune with 
slaveholders. Yet, rather than give a poor widow 
her doctor's bill of five dollars, he will let her last 
cow be sold to pay it. Is he a Christian?" Our 
answer was, w It is easier to account for his outward 



140 satan's devices and 

religious conduct on the supposition that he is still in 
his sins, a supremely selfish man, than to account for 
his exactions of the poor widow on the supposition 
that he is in heart a follower of Christ." 

It is to be feared that there are "reformers," who, 
standing upon the law rather than the gospel, — upon 
Sinai rather than Calvary, — forgetting that God is 
now seeking, by love, to win and save the lost, 
rather than by the terrors of justice to overwhelm 
them, — denounce transgressors with a bitterness of 
spirit which can only work wrath, never repentance, 
in the guilty. And thus they are themselves the 
captives of Satan as an angel of light; friends, "in 
the flesh," of justice, but, "in spirit," alienated from 
" the higher law " of mercy. Let those also beware 
of Satan's devices, who, on the other hand, commit a 
not less grievous offense, by indulging in a bitter 
retaliation against reformers, which naturally places 
them in the attitude of apologizing for the crying sins 
at which reform is aimed. 

6. Satan often leads men into a most rigid consci- 
entiousness in regard to some particular sin, while the 
heart is retained in manifest rebellion against God. 
It is not difficult for this false angel to appeal to the 
conscience, and arouse it, self-righteously, against 
some one form of wickedness. The Jews gave them- 
selves credit for their rigid observance of the Sabbath, 
while their hearts were full of murderous hatred to 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 141 

Christ. There are thousands who accept the false 
light which comes from the devotion of the con- 
science to some form — to almost any form — of 
external righteousness, while their hearts are full of 
selfishness, and all wrong in the sight of God. 

7. On the other hand, Satan plays the angel of 
light by insisting upon " a religion of the heart — 
a spiritual religion. Works are nothing in the sight 
of God, who looks upon the heart. Only believe, 
and all will be well." Thus the adversary would 
satisfy men with an affectation of religion in the 
heart, — with a spurious faith which does not involve 
obedience, — while they may lack common honesty 
in their dealings with their fellow-men. Prayer is 
good , praise to God, well sung, is beautiful ; but 
false and empty words, unaccompanied with works 
of obedience, reveal a kind of spirituality which 
is but the mockery of fools. 

8. This false angel has a w^ay of cheating men by 
inducing them to accept and contend for a * religion 
of principle." When our religion is one of true 
moral principles reigning over us, it is indeed beau- 
tiful, effective, and well pleasing to God. But the 
game of Satan is to cheat the soul into the mere hold- 
ing of truth as principle in the intellect, while he 
retains the heart in his service. He is quite willing 
men should " hold the truth in unrighteousness," as 



142 satan's devices and 

a theory of the understanding, while, as a law of 
life and duty, it is practically rejected ; and this is 
an ungodliness against which the wrath of God is 
revealed from heaven — a wrath all the more terrible, 
because, knowing the truth, glorying in it, and con- 
tending for it, the soul refuses to obey it. 

9. A very common method of the angel of light 
with timid disciples, whom the Spirit would espe- 
cially draw into closer fellowship with the Father, as 
well as with nine tenths of those who desire to know 
what they shall do to be saved, is to present some- 
thing short of Christ himself, as the soul's support 
and life. 

The Jews were not different from other men in 
wishing to see a "sign." Every mind wants a rest- 
ing-place, and necessarily desires to have it revealed, 
or signified. The Jews only sought the wrong thing. 
Christ himself was the proper sign unto them, but 
him they would not receive. Not unfrequently Satan 
himself dispenses "signs" to those who seek them, 
and satisfies them with a most false security. 

As illustrative of many cases, we present another 

Pastor's Sketch. 

A very intelligent lady, who had been spending 
some months in my parish, came to me with her 
spiritual difficulties, seeking relief from long con- 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 143 

tinuecl bondage and darkness. She was a professed' 
Christian, but was in utter uncertainty as to her 
acceptance. For months, the great problem with 
her was, Ami a disciple of Christ? Till that was 
settled, she did not see how she could claim the 
promises, for, perhaps, they did not belong to her. 
She was repelled from the mercy-seat ; her sins 
pressed her with their full weight, for she knew not 
that they were forgiven her. She dare not touch a 
drop of the water of life, though rivers of it were 
breaking forth in the desert around her. Thus the 
gospel availed her nothing, the work of the Spirit 
was arrested, and all was gloom and darkness. 

" What you want, then, is evidence that you are a 
Christian," I said. " Yes ; if I had that, all would 
be well." "How long have you been seeking after 
this sign of discipleship ? " "A long time — nearly 
ever since I thought I was converted." ' ? You need 
a sign, doubtless ; and I suppose you can have one, 
even the best one : what will satisfy you ? " "I do 
not know ; something which will settle it in my mind 
that God has accepted me." " Well, suppose the 
Lord should speak to you from heaven, waking you 

from your sleep, and say, f M , your name is in 

the book of life ; you are my child ; ' or suppose he 
should shed abroad in your heart such a sense of his 
love as you suppose he only grants to his children ; 
would you be satisfied?" w O, yes; that would be 
enough." "I see what you want — something on 



144 SATAN'S DEVICES AND 

which to rest your weary soul. You are tired of 
your struggle. I sympathize with you. Thank God, 
there is a rock on which we can plant our feet. 
But do you think you could long rest on your vision 
of the night ? The voice might seem in the morning 
like a dream, and you might be tempted to doubt 
whether it came from God at all. Could you rest 
any better upon the wave of love that might roll over 
you, and lave your sensibility so refreshingly ? Could 
you rest upon it after it was gone? It would be 
pleasant to remember it, but it could not be a rock 
under your feet. You need something which will 
abide with you, *the same yesterday, to-day, and 
forever.' You are seeking after the wrong sign. 
There is a better one. Your Heavenly Father wants 
you should have the best. Shall I tell you what it 
is?" "Do, certainly." "Well, it is Jesus Christ 
himself. He is here, waiting and offering himself to 
you, to be the home, the resting-place, the asylum, 
the refuge, and stronghold of your soul forever. 
His ability and willingness are infinite. He is the 
sign unto you. He signifies pardon to you. He sig- 
nifies God's infinite love and mercy to you. He sig- 
nifies eternal life to you, for it is in him. He signifies 
the promises to you, for in him they are all yea and 
amen. He signifies your salvation to you, for he has 
given his word, and sealed it with his blood, that 
c whosoever cometh unto him he will in no wise cast 
out.' He signifies every thing to you, for, *in him 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 145 

dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.' Let 
him be your sign, then. Put every thing into his 
hands, and rest your soul upon him for all. Do his 
will ; follow him lovingly and trustfully, and he will 
give you rest and peace. It is simple. It is as when 
the bride accepts the offered bridegroom. She looks 
at him, and trusts herself to him, not to the wedding 
ring, or any thing else he may give her afterward. 
She takes him to her heart, and with him she is sat- 
isfied. He signifies all she wants. She delights to 
sup with him henceforth, but she thinks little of that, 
so satisfied is she with him. She wants no evidence 
that she has a husband, for she has the husband him- 
self, which is better. 

"My advice to you, then, is, to let every thing else 
go, as of no account, and simply receive this offered 
and waiting Jesus to your heart. He knocks, and 
waits to come in. Shall he come? Shall he? Shall 
he now?" After a short pause, with her head resting 
upon her hands, she answered, "Yes ; welcome to my 
Savior — welcome." We went to the mercy-seat; 
Jesus entered. There was a great calm. The sky 
was clear. The darkness was gone, and the doubts 
forgotten. She wore a radiant face, and was ever 
after K so glad " that she came to — — , so dismal 
before, so pleasant now. 

I&ader, if you wish a sign, let it be your Savior. 
13 



146 satan's devices and 



CHAPTER XX. 

HOW TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN SATAN, SO TRANSFORMED 
INTO AN ANGEL OF LIGHT, AND CHRIST, THE TRUE 
ANGEL AND MESSENGER OF GOD, WHOM SATAN COUN- 
TERFEITS. 

If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. — Matt. 6 : 22. 

The practical importance of this topic is great 
every way. It must be so to all classes of men ; for it 
appears, from the previous chapter, that Satan carries 
on his counterfeiting on a great and systematic scale. 
Those who ignore his existence, or who suppose 
themselves, in the main, exempt from his influence, 
or those who are not accustomed to watch for his 
devices, are all the more exposed to being led astray 
by Satan, as an angel of light. There are many 
who have little hope of discriminating between the 
false and the true, Satan and Christ; of knowing, 
with any assurance, what their own characters really 
are in the sight of God. They do not expect to gain 
the experience of Enoch, and have the testimony that 
they please God. Their minds seem paralyzed by 
the difficulty of finding out what the way of life is. 
They are oppressed and stumbled by the conflicting 
religious opinions of the world, and even of the 
churches, and have practically given up the contest 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 147 

for the truth, at this very point, and become hope- 
lessly insnared. They seem to themselves environed 
with insuperable difficulties, growing, perhaps, out of 
their own natures, or the supposed obscurities of 
revelation, or the impracticability of applying any 
of the tests of which they have knowledge, so as 
clearly to expose the counterfeits of the adversary, 
and reliably to establish, in their convictions and in 
their experience, the genuine truth as it is in the 
Lord Jesus Christ. 

It seems to the writer, that not a few are so despair- 
ing on this subject that it is even painful to have 
their attention called to it. They are in the condi- 
tion of those slaves who would give all the world to 
gain their liberty, but, having no hope of gaining it, 
can not bear to hear or say a word on the subject to 
awaken discontent, lest their hard master should 
tighten the cords of their bondage, and make their 
case the more intolerable. They are afraid to look 
the subject in the face, lest their spiritual status 
should be damaged rather than improved thereby. 

Can we then reasonably hope to distinguish clearly 
between the devices of Satan, as an angel of light, and 
the truth, as it is in Christ Jesus our Lord? 

1. It would be infinitely unreasonable to suppose 
that God had required us to obey him, and that he 
had made no adequate provision for our knowing his 
will. This would be to require of us an absolute 



148 satan's devices and 

natural impossibility. It is not conceivable that 
voluntary obedience should be rendered to an un- 
known command. Nor could a more unreasonable 
or blasphemous thing be said of God, than that, on 
pain of his eternal displeasure, he requires obedience 
to a will which he is slow to reveal. Is he a worse 
tyrant than Caligula, who posted his laws so high 
that the Romans could not read them, and then 
punished them for disobedience? How could our 
Savior invite us to hold fellowship and communion 
with him, and proffer us protection from the adver- 
sary, and yet leave it impossible for us to distinguish 
between that adversary and himself? 

2. The Bible clearly teaches that we may know 
the will of God. It is itself a revelation of his will. 
His commands are distinctly and numerously spread 
out upon its pages. One great object of the incar- 
nation, also, was, that men might have before their 
eyes a living and perfect embodiment, an exhibition, 
not merely in words, but in act, in life, and in spirit, 
of the will and character of God. Then, the mis- 
sion of the Holy Spirit, who is promised for the 
honest asking, is to make known the a\ ill of God to 
men, to show them the truth, by which they shall be 
sanctified and fitted for heaven. The Spirit is well 
able to unmask Satan as an angel of false light. We 
have the promise of God also that, f 'If any man will 
do his will, he shall know of the doctrine ;" and, 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 149 

again, "If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall 
be full of light ; " and, again, " If any of you lack wis- 
dom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liber- 
ally, and upbraideth not ; and it shall be given him." 

3. It does not appear that it would be reasonable 
to expect God to force upon men the knowledge of 
his truth and will in spite of their unwillingness to 
receive it, — at least, not further than to fix so much 
light in the mind as would be necessary to moral 
obligation, and to the gaining of additional light, pro- 
vided one should become willing to accept and follow 
it. This measure of light he has given to "every man 
that cometh into the world," through his reason and 
conscience, and has displayed his "eternal power and 
Godhead" in his works, so that all are without excuse 
if they do not obey him, and follow on to know his 
will more and more perfectly. But if men rebel 
against the light they have, and become "unwilling 
to retain God in their knowledge," then he may 
justly give them up to their love of darkness and to 
the dominion of their lusts. 

Kejected truth is the rock which falls upon sinners, 
and grinds them to powder. 

4. It does not appear that benevolence would 
require that God should make his will and truth 
known to us, even when obedient, without an effort 
on our part to find it. Perhaps he could not do this 

13* 



150 satan's devices and 

except by endowing us with omniscience. Even the 
angels do not gain knowledge without study. They 
are represented as inquiring into the meaning of the 
prophetic utterances concerning the sufferings and 
glory of Christ. The prophets had to search dili- 
gently for the very truth they were inspired to pro- 
claim (1 Pet. 1: 10). 

Nature nowhere teaches that we can know all the 
truth we need to know, without diligent and patient 
inquiry. Some things lie upon the surface, both 
of nature and revelation, but there are more things 
which lie deeper and require study. It is only by 
careful and minute investigation that the chemist 
comes to understand the composition of even com- 
mon substances ; and only by repeated and laborious 
experiment, that the natural philosopher can explain 
the working of the forces of nature. The Bible, too, 
is a mine, the full exploration of which requires 
patient and long-continued effort. 

Good and evil are strangely mixed, and it is not 
always easy to separate them. Every good thing is 
so sure to be counterfeited, that all have occasion to 
take heed. We always assume the possibility of dis- 
tinguishing between the true and the false, and the 
obligation to do it. It is in religion only as in other 
things. The gold can be separated from the sand, 
but it requires a process of washing and sifting. 

Let us, then, proceed to inquire, how we can dis- 
tinguish between Satan as an angel of light, and 
Christ, whom he counterfeits. 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 151 

1. Take home the fact, and know it well, that 
Satan is a counterfeiter — that he does, indeed, 
appear and work for our destruction as an angel of 
light. It is not enough, therefore, to consider him 
as the inspirer of lust, falsehood, and crime. We are 
not to expect him to exhibit himself always in his 
true colors. We must regard him as seeking to pro- 
mote his ends by what seems very angel-like, very 
beautiful in appearance, very promising to our hap- 
piness, very creditable to our reputations, very capti- 
vating in our experiences, very useful to our interests, 
very flattering to our hopes, very pleasing to our 
pride, and very honorable, apparently, to our God. 

2. Consider the one great test by which we can 
distinguish between Satan as an angel of light, and 
Christ, whose mission he seeks to usurp. Whatever 
leads to, or allows of, the setting up of our will 
against the will of God as the supreme law of our 
life and conduct, — whatever goes to promote a beauti- 
ful and correct exterior, while the will and heart are 
left enslaved to selfishness, no matter how righteous 
the forms of that selfishness may appear to ourselves or 
to men, — is of Satan. On the other hand, whatever 
leads to the complete surrender of our will, our life, 
and our all to God; whatever inclines us, in the bit- 
terness of trial and sorrow, to exclaim, "Not my will, 
but thine, be done; " whatever makes us hungry for 
truth and righteousness; whatever persuades us not to 



152 satan's devices and 

make account of our external conduct, right though it 
be, but to glory rather in the moral beauty and excel- 
lency of our Savior himself, — all this is of Christ, 
and not of Satan. Jesus aims to destroy our selfish- 
ness, and make us partakers of the divine moral 
nature ; Satan seeks to hold us in our sins, wearing 
his moral nature, and merely to satisfy us with a 
righteousness, beautiful it may be without, but rotten 
at the core. 

The test does not seem a difficult one to apply. It 
does not require great learning, or extended experi- 
ence, so much as a simple, and honest, and truthful 
heart. It only requires that the disciple should be 
faithful and watchful ; for he who is true to the 
Divine voice within shall have his w senses exercised 
to discern both good and evil." 

3. A primary question for the reader to consider is 
this : Do you want to know the distinction between 
Satan as an angel of light, and Christ the true Light, 
or are you willing to be cheated? Do you love dark- 
ness rather than light? If you are willing, on any 
conditions, to be cheated, there is no help for you. 
Satan will quite willingly accept your conditions. 
Your feet have slid already ! 

You can be honest with yourself in this matter, 
and with God ; and you can know that you are so. 
If a man offers you a suspected note, and you pro- 
pose to examine it by the detecter, he can not fail to 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORYo 153 

know whether or not he wants the true character of 
the bill exposed. You can welcome the searching 
eye of Omniscience to penetrate your inmost soul. 
A young man once said to a minister, w Sir, you hurt 
me yesterday with the truth. You touched a very 
sore spot ; but to-day I do not think you could hurt 
me, for it seems to me now, by the grace of God, 
that I am as honest with myself as I can be at the 
day of judgment. I welcome the light." 

I beg the reader not to pass this subject indiffer- 
ently. Stop. Eeflect. To triumph here is to insure 
the great, eternal, and glorious victory, — to escape 
hell and secure heaven. 

4. The great source of our ability to detect Satan 
as an angel of light, lies not in ourselves, not in our 
unaided powers, our superior wits, or keener saga- 
city, but in Jesus Christ himself dwelling in us and 
giving us the advantage of the light which is in him. 
The merchant's ability to detect the counterfeit note 
may not be in his own unaided powers, but in the 
light which his "detecter" gives him. That may, 
indeed, be so inscribed upon his memory, its light 
may be thus so transferred to his mind, that he will 
be able, at once, to indicate the forgery. 

Christ is the Light of the world. He can scatter 
moral darkness, and easily expose all Satan's coun- 
terfeits, no matter how much angel-bleaching their 
surface may wear. Satan's disguises are nothing to 



154 satan's devices and 

his omniscient eye. The lies of Satan, whether 
black or white, are intended to misrepresent the 
character of God ; but, of course, to Christ, it can 
not be successfully falsified ; and when he reveals it, 
the world can know it as it is. 

Our sure and only way, then, of triumph over the 
angel of false light, is to be so united to Christ by 
faith, so one with him in spirit and purpose, so 
acquainted with and wedded to him, that the light 
which is in him, and which he is, ivill shine in oar 
hearts, enabling us to "behold him with open face," 
and, no less clearly, to see and detect the specious 
pretenses of Satan, transformed into his representa- 
tive. 

"Christ in you the hope of glory," Christ "the 
light of the world," is the grand New Testament 
moral and spiritual counterfeit detector. 

This real union of the soul to Christ, as its true 
Light and Life, is the great promise of the New Tes- 
tament. It is symbolized in the union of the vine 
and branches, the head and the members. Paul 
prays for it when he bows his knee in behalf of the 
Ephesian Christians, and asks that Christ may dwell 
(Greek — dwell permanently) in their hearts. Jesus 
himself prays for it, when he asks the Father that his 
disciples "may be one in us," "I in them and thou 
in me," declaring that the glory which the Father had 
given him he had given them ; and this grace is 
pledged to our faith in that great central promise of 









THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 155 

the New Testament, of the Holy Spirit to abide with 
us forever as our guide, teacher, and sanctifier. It 
is the very gist of the New Covenant and its " better 
promises," which guarantee the writing of God's law 
effectually upon the heart of the believer. 

To have Christ, therefore, and his Spirit dwelling 
w with " and w in us," is to have within us a light which 
shall reveal to us the fictions, and forgeries, and false 
lights of Satan, and deliver us from their power. 

The best illustration of this matter is found in the 
relation of two devoted hearts in perfect sympathy 
with each other, as those of husband and wife are 
supposed to be. Let such a husband undertake the 
overthrow of some huge system of iniquity which the 
influential and wealthy are selfishly interested to sus- 
tain, thus incurring their inevitable hatred and oppo- 
sition. He goes on to expose the enormity of its 
wickedness, and the corrupt motives of those who 
uphold it; to show its injustice, its impolicy, its 
ruinous consequences, and to demand its destruction. 
The interested parties, of course, will resist ; they 
will misjudge and misrepresent the reformer at every 
step, denouncing his motives as corrupt, and his 
spirit as malicious. They will play the angel of light 
to their system, and claim that it is scriptural, just, 
and humane ; that their rights in it are sacred ; that 
they are injured, and persecuted, and entitled to the 
sympathy of their fellow-men, while their opponent 
is worthy of death. 



156 satan's devices and 

Now, persons watching the conflict, and having no 
acquaintance with the assailant, and being ignorant 
of the real merits of the case, might grossly misjudge 
him, and deem him a fanatic or a madman. But not 
so with that wife who occupies the same stand-point, 
who knows the reformer perfectly, and is in real sym- 
pathy with him. To her, he is all revealed, and the 
light of his character, shining in her, makes all clear, 
both on the side of the assailant and the assailed. 
That light, to her, perfectly refutes all the slanders 
against her husband, and holds her mind at perfect 
rest in a growing admiration of his character and 
confidence in his success. To know his will is easy, 
for her own is one with it. Knowing her husband as 
she does, how impossible it must be for his chief 
opponent so to transform himself into his character, 
as to be able to pass himself off to her in his stead ! 

Precisely so with the Christian who has found 
Christ as the indwelling light, and the bridegroom 
of the soul. The believer finds a beauty, a glory, an 
excellency in Jesus which can not be counterfeited. 
There is such a divine sweetness and fullness in his 
love, such a tenderness in his sjTnpathy, such long- 
suffering in his patience, such life, even, in his smile, 
such satisfaction in his friendship, as can come from 
no finite mind. In his light, we have no need to be 
ignorant of Satanic devices. Satan might easily lead 
away a Judas with his false light, but could he thus 
deceive a John, a Paul, a Luther, or an Edwards? 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 157 

5. Let there be a conscious dependence upon the 
Holy Spirit for light and guidance. It is his special 
mission to reveal Christ unto us. Be not afraid to 
follow the Spirit. He sheds light upon the reason. 
He does not impel his followers by blind impulses 
which bid defiance to common sense, but sweetly 
assures the heart, illumines the path, and shows it to 
be of God. 

6. Do not commit the mistake of supposing that 
you can know all truth at once, but, in a submissive 
spirit, wait patiently for the light. Be willing to 
know a little, and then to grow in knowledge as fast 
as you can by a diligent use of means. You do not, 
at once, tell your child all you would have him know. 

Do not condemn yourself that your attainments are 
so small, but only hunger and thirst after righteous- 
ness. Walk according to the light you have, and 
you can not fail to gain more. The Savior told the 
lepers to go and show themselves to the priest, and, 
as they went, they were healed. Be the little child, 
and lean not to your own understanding, and you 
shall be taught of God, and see light in his light. 

7. Use the Bible as a detecter. I know Satan uses 
the Word, but not honestly. Compare the suspected 
truth with the tests which Christ presents, and 
observe all the marks. Put the doubtful sentiment 
under a magnifier. This is a quick way to expose 

14 



158 satan's devices axd 

the counterfeit. A strong lens will at once show the 
difference between the genuine and the false note. In 
like way, take the moral counterfeit and look at it 
through the Sermon on the Mount, or through the 
cross, or through the life and spirit of Jesus, and its 
quality will soon be apparent. 

8. Carry the suspected matter to God in prayer. 
If you present a package of notes to an expert 
cashier, his practiced eye will instantly detect the 
counterfeits. There is one in heaven whose eye can 
not be deceived. 

9. Hold fast by faith, in an honest and truthful 
heart, to the promise of light from above. If thine 
eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 
If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who 
giveth to all men liberally, and it shall be given him. 
Following these instructions, the path shall grow 
brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. 

10. Be humble. "God resisteth the proud, but 
giveth grace unto the humble." One of the seven 
sages, being asked what God had done, answered 
thus : w He has exalted humble men, and suppressed 
proud, ignorant souls." The lowly spirit is like the 
violet, which rises but a little way from the ground, 
hangs its head downward, hides itself in its own 
leaves, and is revealed by its fragrance. 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 159 



CHAPTER XXI. 

SATANIC PLOTS. — PASTOR'S SKETCH. 

Lest Satan should get an advantage of us : for we are not ignorant of his 
devices. — 2 Cor. 2 : 11. 

The great Captains of the world have gained their 
renown, very much, through the skillful and well- 
laid plans by which they have been able to circum- 
vent, disappoint, and outwit their antagonists. With 
superior strategic ability, the commander of a small 
army will often destroy an enemy much stronger in 
numbers, in position, and in equipage. 

Satan is a great strategist. He abounds in devices, 
and snares, and plots, wherewith to gain advantages 
over men for their moral destruction. His plans run 
back into early life, and include the putting of a lie 
upon the tongue of infancy, if possible, at its first 
utterance. They are often interwoven with our 
whole history. They may be slowly and cautiously 
developed, involved partly in one habit and partly in 
another. They may be designed to hedge up the 
sinner's way to the mercy-seat, or to confirm the 
soul in a state of skepticism and impenitence. 

As an illustration of Satanic plots, I present the 
following 



160 SATAN'S DEVICES AND 

Pastor's Sketch. 

Several years ago, the writer was laboring with a 
neighboring pastor, during a season of revival. 
" What shall we do to be saved ? " was the one topic 
of inquiry in the community. One man, Mr. B., was 
so penetrated with the subject that he had no rest, 
night or day. With the pastor, I went to his house. 
A few moments' conversation revealed the fact that 
the Spirit was, indeed, striving with him. He 
seemed ripe for the acceptance of Christ as his 
Savior, and this act was urged upon him ; to which 
he deliberately replied, * I shall never be a Chris- 
tian." "Never be a Christian! Why not?" His 
only reply was, "lean not; it is impossible." "It 
is not impossible, God himself being witness, unless 
you have blasphemed the Holy Ghost : do you believe 
you have done that? " " I never meant to do it, and 
do not think I have." "Then your conclusion that 
you can not be a Christian is false ; you can be ; God 
invites you ; the atonement is sufficient, though all 
the righteous blood shed upon the earth from that of 
Abel, were upon your soul ; come and take the easy 
yoke of Christ." "Well, I can not help it; I shall 
never be a Christian." " But do you not wish to be 
one? Have you chosen to make your bed in hell? 
Have you found some fault with Christ, that you will 
not have him to reign over you? " " O, no, no ; I do 
not w is h to remain the enemy of one who has laid 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 161 

down his life to redeem me. Christ is all right ; but 
it is of no use ; I shall never be a Christian.", w Sir, 
what is this which you have covered up in your 
heart, and which drives you to this terrible conclu- 
sion ? There must be something there — something, 
no doubt, by which Satan means to destroy your 
soul." w I shall not tell you what it is." " But your 
salvation may depend upon your revealing it. Will 
you not retire and tell me in confidence ? " " No, sir ; 
I shall never reveal it." Turning to his wife, I asked, 
* Madam, do you know what this thing is ? " "I do." 
■? Will it do any harm for him to reveal it ? " " Not 
the least, I think." Again turning to Mr. B., I said, 
"My dear sir, you must uncover this matter. Satan 
will drag you down to death and hell with this invisi- 
ble halter. Come, out with it, and God will set you 
free." He shook his head negatively. I then told 
him the story of Father Carpenter and the New 
Jersey lady, given in a previous chapter, in order to 
show him the necessity and advantage of yielding to 
my entreaty. His only reply was, "I'll board you 
till you die, rather than tell you." It seemed impos- 
sible to move him ; but God's Spirit was there, and 
we were not to be foiled. At length Mr. B. began to 
n ake suppositions. w Suppose a man has bound him- 
self by a solemn oath never to do a certain thing ; how 
is he ever to perform that thing ? " " If the thing he 
swore not to do was a right thing, his oath does not 
and can not bind him. Were the men who swore 
14* 



162 satan's devices and 

they would kill Paul bound to do it ? There is no 
such thing possible as a moral obligation to do what 
is wrong. The thing to be done, then, in respect to 
such an oath, is to repent of it, and break it as soon 
as possible." Even Satan could not successfully dis- 
pute this position, and it evidently made its impres- 
sion. Then he said again, w Suppose a man had con- 
fessed himself guilty of a crime, and afterward, 
becoming a Christian, should deny the truth of his 
former confession ; who could have any confidence in 
him that he was a Christian — could you?" " Pecu- 
liar case, surely. Men are not apt, when receiving 
forgiveness of sins, to justify themselves in conduct 
which they confessed criminal before they found 
mercy. A converted man would naturally intensify 
his confession of former transgressions. But, if I 
could see the reason why a man acknowledged guilt 
which did not belong to him, his withdrawal of the 
acknowledgment after his conversion would not, in 
the least, impair my confidence in him ; for this would 
be his duty if he were not guilty. 

"Now Mr. B., I suspect you. Do not these sup- 
positions point to your difficulty?" "Well, I can 
not deny it." * Very well; this dumb spirit must be 
cast out. God forbid that Satan should cheat you 
out of eternal life in this way. What is the trouble ? " 
But he was dumb still. 

At this point, his pastor, Rev. Mr. C, deliberately 
said, "Mr. B., do you know that I am acquainted 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 163 

with this whole affair ? " * No, sir ! Are you ? " "I 
am. My neighbor, Mr. W., has told me all." "Mr. 
W. told you — did he? Yes, I know him ; he is my 
enemy." "But," said the good pastor, "be not 
offended with Mr. W. ; he is your friend, not your 
enemy. He told me only for your good. He 
believes the adversary is making use of the affair to 
destroy your soul, and he wished me to know it, 
that I might help you to escape from the snare of 
the fowler : he loves you, and prays for you." The 
snare was broken. I said to him, " Sir, this is your 
hour ; the waters in the pool are troubled ; step in, 
and be made whole ; kneel with us before the Lord, 
and let your heart offer the publican's prayer, God, 
be merciful to me a sinner." He was on his knees 
before the words had all fallen from my lips, with his 
heart broken and dissolved in tears. We prayed, 
while the wind of the Spirit blew upon him, and he 
arose evidently a new creature in Christ Jesus. 

The facts in the case were these. When Mr. B. 
was a young man, some base fellows robbed a store 
of thirty dollars. They made a tool of him, and put 
the money into his hands, and told him to hide it, 
and he should have a part of it. In the thoughtless- 
ness of his youth, he did as they told him. The next 
Say, the robbery was discovered, and the lad betrayed 
himself by his fear and consternation. He was 
threatened with state prison, but was finally told, if 
he would confess and restore the money, nothing more 



164 satan's devices and 

should be done. He did so. The people understood, 
from his confession, that he was the original and only 
guilty party, whereas he knew he was not. He had 
suffered much from the affair ; and, feeling that cer- 
tain Christians, among whom was his then neighbor, 
Mr. W., had treated him unkindly, he had been led 
to take his oath that he w^ould never be a Christian. 
It was a very natural difficulty which Satan now sug- 
gested, that, should he deny his former confession, 
he could never have the confidence of Christians as a 
fellow-disciple, and that it would, therefore, be in vain 
to attempt to become a Christian. 

I had learned a new lesson touching the plots of 
Satan. After returning to my home inM., I pre- 
pared a sermon from the text at the head of this 
chapter, including in it the foregoing sketch. Having 
occasion, soon after, to preach for the AVelsh church 
in the city, I used this discourse. On the next morn- 
ing, there came to my door a fine-looking young 
foreigner, inquiring for the minister who had preached 
the night before at the Welsh church. From his 
broken speech, I learned that he had been greatly 
afflicted by the loss of his property and his friends ; 
that he had been sorely disappointed in his mission 
to this country, so that he knew not which way to 
turn; that he felt that Satan had insnared him, so 
that his hope was well nigh extinguished, while he 
felt himself overwhelmed in the deep waters ; and 
that he wished to give me many thanks ; that, 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 165 

through my sermon, Jesus had f? seized him by the 
hair of his head as he was sinking for the last time, 
and lifted him up, and set his feet again on the Rock 
of Ages." 

It is hoped that the sketch above given may be of 
practical service to others. 

The plots of Satan are numberless. He often, no 
doubt, pushes men into the commission of some dis- 
graceful form of sin, foreseeing that, in all probability, 
they will never confess it and obtain pardon. Sup- 
pose a man, who has prided himself upon his reputa- 
tion for honor and veracity in the community, sud- 
denly finds his business affairs in such a state that 
failure stares him in the face. He sees but one way 
of escape. If his property would only take fire and 
burn up, the insurance money would save him. 
Satan suggests, — he meditates; — he can fire the 
premises, — his known integrity will shield him from 
suspicion. His heart beats quick; he must do it or 
fail ; he yields, applies the torch, and his property is 
in ashes. He receives the insurance, and escapes 
failure. The man of honor is an incendiary, a thief, 
a liar, and a swindler, perhaps a murderer ! and still 
he claims to be an honest man. What a snare ! Will 
he ever escape from it? Will he ever confess his 
crime, and restore the money, that his sin maybe 
blotted out? He may, but how fearfully probable 
that he will never do it ! 

Thousands, doubtless, are taken by some such 



166 satan's devices and 

artful device of the adversary. Crimes lie buried 
in their hearts, while, peradventure, false names are 
assumed. Falsehood upon falsehood covers them, 
and, probably, nothing but the judgment of the great 
day, the rays of which will penetrate the darkest 
minds and reveal them as in sun-light, will ever dis- 
close them. Such persons are "ignorant of Satan's 
devices." 

Many of the principles of the business world, and 
of the customs and fashions of society, are used by a 
plotting adversary to draw men fatally away from 
their allegiance to Christ. With many, it is a settled 
principle, that real honesty and success in business 
are incompatible with each other. Surely a devotee 
of fashion can not be a follower of Jesus, the "meek 
and lowly." Let every man scrutinize the business 
and social maxims and customs by which he is gov- 
erned, lest they involve some falsehood or some plot 
of the Devil designed to insnare and corrupt the 
soul ! 

There is, for most people, no influence in the 
world so strong as that which one living mind exerts 
over another. Recognizing this fact, Satan con- 
structs many of his plots with reference to bringing 
the yet youthful and unsophisticated under the 
dominion of those who are advanced and established 
in vicious principles and habits. Wicked men, 
whom the adversary controls, are but the instru- 
ments wherewith he leads other men " captive at his 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 167 

will." And if he can take advantage of the example 
of a professedly good man, and so, the more unsus- 
pected, fasten his halter to the neck of his victim, the 
more certainly will Satan make his plot succeed. 
Every one for himself, every parent for his child, 
every Christian for his fellow-disciple, should, there- 
fore, watch ceaselessly against the mental and moral 
influence of evil-minded persons. 



168 SATAN'S DEVICES AXD 



CHAPTER XXII. 

SATAN THE ENEMY OF PRAYER AND VITAL COMMUNION 
WITH GOD. 

Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the 
wiles of the devil. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the 
Spirit. — Eph. 6 : 11,18. 

An all-prevailing, unremitting spirit of prayer is an 
essential part of the Christian's invincible armor. 

There is no truth more clearly set forth in the 
Bible than that God accepts and answers prayer. He 
has so pledged himself to do it, that he can not fail 
and be a God of truth. "Ask and it shall be given 
you," is the broad, unqualified promise. From Gen- 
esis to Revelation, assurance follows assurance, that 
the ?f eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and 
his ears open unto their cry." The fullness and posi- 
tiveness of the promises only show how strongly God 
desires to have men approach his mercy-seat with 
loving boldness and humble confidence. Prayer is 
the connecting link between earth and heaven. It is 
the apparatus w^ith w^hich the soul draws its living 
waters from the deep wells of salvation. Communion 
w^ith God is to the life of the soul what food is to 
the life of the body. The intensity of God's wish to 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 169 

save men from sin and death exactly measures his 
desire to bring them into communion with himself, 
by all possible means, but especially by prayer ; for 
it is only by such heavenly intercourse, the soul can 
be lifted out of its sinfulness into the higher life of 
truth. Prayer ought to be as natural and easy, as 
full of confidence and affection, as free and joyous as 
the fellowship and converse of the most loving hearts. 
God would thus reveal himself to his people, and 
make them acquainted with his holy hatred of sin 
not only, but with his heart of yearning tenderness 
toward all the beings he has created, and with his 
peculiar love to his redeemed children ; and so give 
them the light he w^ould have them reflect upon the 
world. Men will know God, and be able to repre- 
sent him truly, in proportion as their communion 
with him is intimate and habitual. The Bible will be 
luminous and life-giving, in the measure in which it 
is read and studied in the light of this heavenly inter- 
course. The providences of God will become sig- 
nificant and precious to the soul by the same rule. 
The spirituality of the law and the power of the gos- 
pel, the reality of God's attributes, character, and 
government, of heaven and of hell, of all our priv- 
ileges here and our inheritance hereafter, will be seen 
and felt most deeply at the mercy-seat. 

These things being obviously so, Satan will, of 
course, as one of his primary measures of evil, do his 
utmost to prevent our communion with God. He 
15 



170 satan's devices and 

hates the closet and the throne of grace as he does 
Calvary and atoning blood. His opposition is not to 
all that is called prayer, but simply to that which 
involves the soul's vital approach to God. He is 
willing enough that men should multiply forms of 
prayer, and count their beads, and petition Allah at 
the Muezzin's call ; and that the monks in the monas- 
tery of f? The Conquering Angel " should pray night 
and day, forever, for the conversion of England to 
the Roman Catholic faith, and for whatever else may 
conflict with the will of God. Xay, he may be quite 
willing to facilitate all manner of praying which 
comes short of real communion with God. 

What young convert, what Christian, does not 
Satan resist, w in coming to the mercy-seat " ! From 
how many hearts, in the church even, has he quite 
obliterated the idea that such intimate communion 
with God as the promises imply, is possible ! How 
many has he seduced into the notion, that God will 
not be influenced by our supplications, since he 
determined all his acts from eternity, — as if he did 
not, from eternity, foresee every true prayer that 
should ever be offered to him, and determine to 
answer it, — and that the only good of prayer is that 
which is to be gained by the exercise of offering it ! 
To how many hearts has Satan suggested, w God will 
not hear your prayer ; " w You are unworthy to com- 
mune with God — approach him not ; " w You have 
sinned, and God will not hear you ; " fr You can not 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 171 

p ra y — it is mockery to attempt it ; " and has thus 
repelled jthem from the mercy-seat ! With such an 
incrustation of lies upon the sensibility, and while 
the mind remains in unbelief as to God's presence, 
and readiness to hear his people, of course prayer 
can not attain its natural expression, and is an unsat- 
isfying service. To promote such unbelief Satan 
spares no pains. 

The great remedy for all this mischief is to " resist 
the devil," and give God glory by believing and 
insisting that he will answer prayer honestly and 
truthfully offered according to his will. Some things, 
we know, are according to his will, and we may 
believe and ask for them, nothing doubting, as, for 
example, grace to honor God, strength to obey his 
word, wisdom to direct us, the gift of the Spirit to 
abide with and teach us the way of duty. 

The religious world is full of facts illustrating the 
* power of prayer," and showing how it is answered. 
These anecdotes are valuable because instructive. 
Let us add the following : — 

I once asked an intelligent parishioner this ques- 
tion : "Did you ever get cornered in your business, 
and prove the availability of prayer?" He smiled 
affirmatively, and said, "I was, at one time, on the 
verge of failure. A large amount of bank paper was 
maturing, and my resources for meeting it had 
entirely failed. I tried my best to provide means of 
payment, but to no purpose. There was but one 



172 satan's devices and 

more banker to whom I could go. To him I carried 
the whole case on my knees. I told him I was will- 
ing to fail , if, in his providence, he would have it so. 
But, if it could more honor my Savior that I should 
pay my debts, as a Christian man should do, I 
besought him to send me relief. I waited the result, 
believing God had heard my prayer. The conse- 
quence was, that, as my paper became due, men 
came to me, voluntarily, with just the amount I 
needed, asking me to take it, and pay them interest 
for the use of it. I was saved from failure ; and I have 
had no trouble in paying my debts since that day." 

Here is a fact showing that God has some peculiar 
ways of answering his children. That good brother 
Raymond, who went to Africa with the Amistad cap- 
tives, and commenced the Mendi mission, and who 
has since gone to his rest, told me that, while he was 
preaching to the poor fugitives in Canada, who were 
scarcely able to give him his bread for his labor, he 
wore out his coat, and had no means of getting 
another. There was a brother with him who was 
also in want of five dollars. They concluded to 
carry their necessities to God, on retiring to rest on 
a bright moon-light night. Mr. Raymond told the 
Lord that his coat was very poor, threadbare, out at 
various places, and he did not think it was fit to 
preach so glorious a gospel in, and asked his Heavenly 
Father to help him to a new one. The other brother 
told the Lord, also, the story of his wants. In the 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 173 

course of the night, a wolf came about the house, 
whose howl awoke the young men. They arose, 
took their gun, and went out, and shot the wolf; and 
the bounty on it got the one a coat and the other five 
dollars. They believed in a "particular providence," 
and that God could turn the tables on the wolves, 
and make them feed the sheep. 

In this connection, we think it may be of service 
to repeat a story which went the rounds of the papers 
some years ago. 

As we remember it, certain clergymen had been 
disputing about the meaning of the command to " pray 
without ceasing." A plain, pious woman, meeting 
one of them, said, w I know what that passage means." 
She was invited to give her views, which she did by 
telling her experience, as follows: "When I rise in 
the morning, the first thing I do is to put on my 
clothes ; and I pray God to clothe me with the robe 
of my Redeemer's righteousness, and with the gar- 
ment of humility. The next thing I do is to build a 
fire ; and I pray God to kindle the fire of love in my 
heart, that his word may be as a fire in my bones, and 
that I may escape the burning lake. The next thing 
I do is to sweep the floor ; and I pray that Jesus will 
sweep from my heart all the dirt and dust which his 
eye sees there. Then I set the table ; and I pray 
that I may sit at the marriage supper of the Lamb, 
and be bountifully supplied with the bread of life. 
If I sit, I pray that I may sit at the feet of Jesus ; 
15* 



174 satan's devices and 

if I stand, that it may be in his righteousness, and 
upon the Rock of Ages ; if I walk, that it may be 
with God, like Enoch ; if I run, that I may run the 
race with patience, and safely reach the goal." 

Thus this mother in Israel showed how, in her 
state of mind, every thing about her suggested a 
topic of prayer, and kept her spontaneously com- 
muning with God. Was ever a passage of Scripture 
better expounded? 

Every Christian may make his K calling and election 
sure" by maintaining, inviolate, habitual communion 
with God. 

The devices of Satan to break up the soul's com- 
munion with God are numerous and subtle. 

If a man will go to his closet, the adversary will, 
if possible, seduce him into a practical unbelief as to 
the presence, there, of Christ, and into a mere formal 
service, in which he will have no real intercourse 
with God, and which will only foster the spirit of 
self-righteousness, or be suggestive of doubts and 
fears. 

Satan would have men think the mercy-seat inac- 
cessible, or induce the feeling that it is located in 
some uninviting Terra del Fuego, where the weather 
never clears, instead of a Buenos Ayres, where the 
atmosphere is always balmy and beautiful. He would 
have men believe that the throne of grace can be 
approached only by the pure and holy ; whereas it 
was established expressly, and located " not far from 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 175 

every one of us," that the unworthy, the helpless, the 
sinful might find succor. He takes advantage of our 
relapses and failures to repel us from its approach ; 
whereas they constitute the strongest reasons for 
frequenting that refuge for lost sinners. Herein 
Satan utterly misrepresents our Heavenly Father. 
The Good Shepherd is specially regardful of the 
weak and erring. Would that all understood this as 
well as did Peter ! A sheep may fall into the ditch, 
and be a sheep still — widely different from the swine 
whose instincts all incline him to go there. 

Satan, moreover, brings his own will to bear 
directly against that of the disciple, to keep him from 
drawing near to God by prayer. Minds seem consti- 
tuted to resist as well as to help each other. When 
a father sets his will against that of his child, forbid- 
ding him to do a given thing, a real force is put into 
operation. When the public will is set in a particular 
direction, it is difficult to resist and overcome it. It is 
like a moral avalanche. This resistance belongs to 
the will of the masses, rather than to mere "public 
sentiment," as the phrase is. A sentiment which has 
not entered into the voluntary life of the people, 
has slight moral power. The creed of a church 
weighs little until it is incorporated into their prac- 
tice. Our national doctrine of liberty is powerless 
for good, while we willingly agree to hold men in 
bondage. This vast will-power, his own and that 
which inheres in the example of the prayerless mul- 



176 SATAN'S DEVICES AND 

titude, Satan throws across the pathway of the Chris 
tian, especially as it leads to the mercy-seat, forbid- 
ding his advance in that direction. To break from 
this restraining influence, especially when it emanates 
from intimate associates and kindred, from men of 
mark and wealth, and from that sex whose- will often 
has the force of social law, is, to the young and inex- 
perienced in religion, no easy matter. But, taking 
advantage of the help there is in the inspiring will 
of the "great cloud of witnesses" above, in the 
example of the Jacobs and Elijahs, and the hosts of 
royal men around us who live by communion with 
the Holy One, in the name of the Omnipotent, we 
can and should overcome all obstacles, and live in 
habitual and blessed intercourse with our God and 
Savior. 

Midler's "Life of Trust" has raised the question, 
whether we may expect the prayer of faith to be 
answered, independently of the use of means on the 
part of the suppliant. That servant of God professes 
to have received the funds necessary to carry forward 
his charitable work, soliciting them from no man, but 
from God only. A few words on this subject, in this 
connection, as guarding against any error of which 
Satan might take advantage, may not be out of place. 

The Bible, as well as reason, proves that God has 
established the connection between means and ends, 
and required men to use their own agency, as far as 
they may, in supplying their wants. In addition to 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 177 

this, the help of God is indispensable ; and for this 
we are to pray. The Bible teaches that Divine and 
human agency are united in the production of results. 
"That thou givest them they gather" says the Psalm- 
ist (104 : 28). In many of the miracles, even, sec- 
ondary agency was introduced, as in that of furnishing 
wine at the marriage in Cana, of feeding the multi- 
tudes, and of opening the eyes of the blind. The 
answer to prayer may be as legitimate and palpable 
in supplying us with the means of gaining the bless- 
ing we seek, as in bestowing directly the object for 
which we pray. This is strikingly illustrated by the 
case of the two brethren and the wolf, just narrated. 
There are cases, indeed, where it would be impossi- 
ble to employ m\y subordinate instrumentalities, as 
where Elijah, on Carmel, prays for rain. He could 
only pray and ivatch. In such cases, of course, the 
use of means is not required. 

There is nothing in the experience of the author of 
the "Life of Trust" which goes to impair the old 
Christian doctrine on this subject, that the suppliant 
must pray, and watch, and work by all legitimate 
methods, in order that his prayers may be answered. 

Mr. Muller himself, after all, acted upon this prin- 
ciple. The means he used were peculiar, but potent. 
He really asked every Christian man to aid him in 
building his orphan houses, when he made known the 
fact, or when it became known, that he was building 
them in the name of the Lord, and for the use of 



178 Satan's devices axd 

God's poor and helpless ones, and that he was trust- 
ing the Lord alone to supply the funds. By this 
very position, mutely but loudly, he said to every 
man, "This is purely a Christian work ; it is a privi- 
lege to promote it ; how can you withhold your gifts 
from such an enterprise?" And in proportion as 
confidence was felt in the principles of the Bible, and 
in Mr. Muller as a true and wise servant of God, con- 
tributions did, naturally enough, by the grace of God, 
and in answer to prayer, flow into his hands. He 
could scarcely have plied the minds of good men 
more effectually with motives to benevolence. He 
exercised a trust which, under the circumstances, 
God was pleased greatly to honor. But was the 
hand of the Lord less visible in providing the means 
for building the temple, when David himself offered, 
as some reckon, over 50,000,000 pounds sterling, and 
then called upon the people to follow his example, 
and bring in their offerings, which they did with a 
similar liberality? With glad and joyous hearts they 
acknowledged that all the} r had was the Lord's, and 
that it was by his grace that they had been enabled 
to offer so willingly and abundantly unto him. Was 
it not an additional blessing to David, and to the 
people, that God was pleased to answer his prayer 
for means, by making his own appeal to his subjects 
effectual? In other words, is there not a substantial 
good in having our own agency employed in the 
work of answering our prayers ; and should we not, 
therefore, expect God so to employ it? 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 179 

We must not forget that it is the w effectual fervent 
prayer of a righteous man " which " availeth much ; " 
nor should we overlook the necessity of importunity, 
as enjoined by Christ in the parable of the unjust 
judge. It is not, indeed, to be supposed that God 
requires the urgency there inculcated, for its own 
sake, as if he needed something to excite his benevo- 
lence. It is demanded rather in accordance with that 
law of our being by which we put forth our intensest 
efforts to obtain that which we most highly prize. 
If we value spiritual blessings as we should, we shall 
naturally act according to the spirit of that parable, 
and, like Jacob, refuse to let the Angel of the Cove- 
nant go, except he bless us. 

If Satan can not wholly prevent our intercourse 
with God, he will try to silence our importunity, lest 
we should obtain the higher and richer blessings of 
the kingdom, and be effectually avenged of him as 
the enemy of our souls. 

There is no more precious truth in connection with 
this subject, than that our ever-living Intercessor 
by virtue of his own sacrifice, presents for us, at the 
throne of God, the supplications which the Spirit, 
helping our infirmities, has begotten in us, and which 
our faith importunately urges, and, that he is sure to 
prevail. Against that intercession, Satan is pow- 
erless. 



180 satan's devices and 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

SATAN AS PHILOSOPHER, THEOLOGIAN, AND LOGICIAN. 

Oppositions of science, falsely so called ; which some, professing, have erred 
from the faith. — 1 Tim. 6 : 20. 

The roots of our theology penetrate and draw their 
life from our underlying philosophy ; so that, if our 
mental science be false, our theological system can 
not be true, and we "err from the faith" by inevi- 
table necessity. Our philosophy must determine all 
our essential definitions in theology, and furnish us 
our laws for interpreting the word, the character, and 
the government of God. It will, consciously or un- 
consciously, shape our experiences, and stamp itself 
effectually upon our lives. 

All this Satan knows full well, for he is an old and 
careful student of the nature and laws of mind. He 
will see to it, therefore, that, as far as possible, our 
mental and moral science shall be only "falsely so 
called," that he may subvert the very fomidations on 
which the structure of objective truth must rest. 
He is to be regarded. as the father of scientific lies, not 
less than others, but rather more so, if he can con- 
nect with them more disastrous consequences. He is 
doubtless the father, too, of that popular notion that 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 181 

teachers of religion should ignore the subject of men- 
tal philosophy as altogether unprofitable. He would 
be glad to be let alone in the work of constructing 
the molds by which our religious systems, and creeds, 
and habits must be shaped. 

Let us attempt to expose Satan as a false philoso- 
pher and theologian, in respect to a few important 
topics. 

1. The doctrine of the will is cardinal in its rela- 
tions to theology. There are two theories concern- 
ing its nature. One is, that it is free in its choices ; 
that the choice is of the man himself, and is, there- 
fore, what he determines it to be. The other is, that 
the choice is the necessary and unavoidable result of 
the motives before the mind ; so that it is not deter- 
mined at all by the man himself. A person deliber- 
ately commits a murder that he may possess himself 
of his victim's gold. The gold is the motive to the 
act of murder. If there had been no gold, there 
would have been no motive to the crime, and it would 
not have been committed. But the motive existed ; 
it was before the mind, and appealed to the murderer 
to do the desperate deed. Now, on the theory of 
freedom in the will, it is maintained that the man had 
the power, in his nature, to resist the wrong motive 
and obey the right one — to choose between the 
opposing motives, and determine whether to commit 
the crime, or remain an innocent man. That he did 
16 



182 satan's devices akd 

yield, and commit the crime, is, therefore, held to be 
his own guilty act, for which he is justly responsible. 
The motive was the occasion; the reason, w r hy he 
acted; the actor w-as himself. On the theory of 
necessity, on the other hand, it is held, that the rela- 
tion between the motive and the volition which took 
the life, was such, that the act or crime of murder 
could not have been avoided. The motive, not the 
man, was the real murderer, as the fire is the real 
cause of the boiling of the water. «, 

That the former is the true doctrine, we have 
sufficiently shown in Chapter IV. The latter theory 
we regard as w science falsely so called," and full of 
deadly error. 

Christian philosophers who adopt the false theory 
are prevented, by their piety and by the Scriptures, 
from seeing and acknowledging all its baleful deduc- 
tioms. But atheistic and rationalistic philosophers 
leap at once from such premises to the denial of 
Christianity, and of the divine existence, and of any 
real distinctions in character and morals. 

In proportion as men practically adopt this error, 
— and many do adopt it in religion, as Satan would 
have them, though never in regard to the affairs of 
this life, — the following, among other evil conse- 
quences, w^ill follow : there will be no sense of obli- 
gation, actively and earnestly, and at all times, to 
obey God ; for we are so made that w^e can not feel 
obligation to what we believe we have no power, in 
our natures, to do. 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 183 

The mind will be thrown into a passive state, and 
be shorn of its strength. The soul can make no 
stand against the forces of evil, and must drift pas- 
sively with them — the mere creature, and not the 
creator of events, the slave, and not the master of 
circumstances. The soul is not even an agent ; it is 
a mere vessel through which the waters are at liberty 
to flow. 

Faith can be little more than a name — a dead 
profession ; for the vital element of that grace, on the 
human side of it, is the voluntary one — the will, 
consciously grasping the truth, by the grace of God, 
and making its power the soul's own. "All things 
are possible to him that believeth," is true, because 
he chooses the object of faith, and determines to do the 
bidding of faith ; but if a man denies his power thus 
to will, he denies that which is essential to the life 
and vigor of his faith ; and, instead of being able to 
do all that a believer ought to do, he will do nothing, 
and will become the easy prey of Satan. 

All the Christian graces are, by this false theory, 
impaired, to say the least. For what can love, self- 
denial, gratitude, or repentance amount to, if they 
have not in them the element of conscious choice and 
determination? When a man is full of determined 
energy and devotion toward God, toward right and 
truth, — when self-will is renounced, and Christ is 
supremely chosen and enthroned in his heart, — he 
becomes a power in the world to influence and control 



184 satan's devices and 

men, to overcome obstacles, and to mold society ; he 
is like Paul, a living demonstration of the truth of 
Christianity ; but the man who adopts the false theory 
slumbers in his passivity. With this philosophy, the 
doctrine of dependence naturally becomes perverted. 
Its advocates are likely to depend hopelessly upon 
God for an ability they already possess, and do not 
recognize, instead of depending, as they should, for 
that fuller, clearer, and higher knowledge of himself 
by which we are to grow into his moral likeness, and 
more and more completely and efficiently execute 
his will. 

Under the influence of this mistaken theory, our 
view of sin is, of course, most injuriously confused and 
distorted. Instead of a stubborn refusal to use our 
voluntary powers as God, for the best of reasons, re- 
quires, — a most wicked rebellion against his author- 
ity and contempt of his mercy, — sin comes to be 
viewed as something so connected with our very 
natures, that we can scarcely know what it is, or see 
any guilt in it, or how to escape it, or why we are 
condemned for it, or called upon to repent of it. 
Then, as a natural result of this false and indefinite 
notion, the whole gospel, as a means of saving us 
from sin, is necessarily involved in the same confu- 
sion and indefiniteness. If a man steals his neurh- 
bor's property, his soul is stung with condemna- 
tion ; he sees and knows his guilt ; but, lulled by this 
most delusive speculation, men live in the constant 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 185 

violation of God's laws without a blush upon their 
cheeks. 

It is, therefore, another consequence of this false 
theory, that it becomes next to impossible to con- 
vict men of sin before God. Our sanctuaries are full 
of persons who are unmoved by any appeals to repent 
of sin; and the reason is, that they have adopted 
Satan's great scientific falsehood, and said, with the 
Jews, "If our sins and our iniquities be upon us, 
how should we then live ? " w We can not help our- 
selves." 

Thanks be to God, and to the deep consciousness 
of our freedom, men can not act, in all respects, as if 
they were mere machines, nor rest in blank atheism, 
as they would otherwise be led to do. This error, 
however, is one of the very strongest of the adver- 
sary's intrenchments, and is the ultimate basis of 
nearly all the forms of infidelity, from universalism 
to atheism, inclusive. None of them can stand a 
moment in argument, only as they fall back upon this 
philosophy, "falsely so called." 

2. Another of the leading and most bewitching 
of the false principles of Satanic mental philosophy, 
is the doctrine that we are to judge ourselves by our 
emotional experiences, rather than by our conscious 
voluntary conformity, or want of conformity, to the 
truth and will of God. 

We have before said that Satan attacks the mind, 
16* 



186 satan's devices and 

mainly, through the sensibility. The law of God 
being written upon the reason, his assault upon that 
power directly would be less likely to succeed. He 
must somehow make darkness appear to be light, 
and light, darkness ; and this he can easily accom- 
plish, if he can induce men to accept a state of the 
emotions as the practical standard of right. 

This is precisely what Satan does : he "puts it into 
men's hearts" that they are right when they are the 
subjects of a certain state of religious feeling, and 
wrong when they are not. If that exists, they sup- 
pose they have faith and love, and are, therefore, 
accepted of God ; if that does not exist, they con- 
clude that God has rejected and will not hear them. 
They give up their confidence, quit the mercy-seat, 
"hang their harps on the willows," and go into a 
chronic despondency " by the cold streams of Baby- 
lon." It becomes the great, unnatural struggle of 
their religious life to gain and retain the peculiar state 
of the emotions which they have accepted as the 
standard of what is right and pleasing to God. Our 
churches abound with such mistaken souls. Their 
religion is at the mercy of the winds, rising or 
falling with the mercury in the sensibility. 

The consequences of this error will be apparent to 
all who will reflect upon them. 

The mind is intimately related to the body, and 
our emotions are often, unavoidably, as the state of 
bodily health. A wretched dyspeptic can scarcely 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 187 

praise the Lord, emotionally, if he tries ever so hard, 
though he may hold heroic fellowship with the suffer- 
ings of Christ. 

Making our emotions the test and guide of our 
moral conduct, we ignore, of necessity, the guidance 
of our reason, whereon the divine image is enstamped, 
and in which his light shines. We must also fail to 
make the Word of God or the Spirit of God, our 
guide, unless, indeed, it happens to coincide with 
our feelings. 

Another most lamentable consequence of this error 
will be, that we shall defeat the purpose of God in re- 
spect to our moral discipline and growth. These come 
by steadfastly obeying the truth, even when the sensi- 
bility is in a furnace heated to sevenfold intensity. 
The only way to stand with those w who have come 
up through great tribulation," is to be firm in patient 
adherence to the divine will, although the ocean of 
temptation and sorrow roll over us, as the waters 
sometimes sweep over the Eddystone lighthouse in 
the English Channel. This we can not do, if we 
make our feelings our standard of judgment. 

Such a rule of duty also interferes, directly and 
ruinously, with the exercise of faith, and of all other 
Christian graces. The glory of Abraham's faith con- 
sisted in the fact that he persisted, with his whole 
voluntary power, in the faithfulness of God, although 
his sensibility was ready "to stagger" at the promise, 
whose fulfillment was so long delayed. To walk by 



188 satan's devices and 

faith is often to contradict sight. No man will ever 
be led, by his feelings, to the cross and the stake. 

This philosophy overlooks the respective offices of 
the sensibility and of the reason, and almost inter- 
changes them. All experience must harmonize with 
the true nature and laws of mind. Make the will of 
God, as expressed in the Bible, and re-affirmed in the 
reason, the standard of duty ; do it, though tempta- 
tion clamor never so much against it ; and, in due 
time, the sensibility will fulfill its own office, and give 
you the very peace of God which passes all under- 
standing. "Ye have need of patience, that, after ye 
have done the will of God, ye may receive the prom- 
ise." Following the false science of the enemy, you 
are, on the other hand, at sea without helm, chart, or 
compass. 

A true philosophy, leaving the sensibility essential- 
ly to its own organic laws, bids the soul lay hold of 
the truth of God as its life, to sink or swim with that, 
to anchor to it, though the waters roar and be trou- 
bled, and the mountains shake with the swelling 
thereof; and it charges the eye of consciousness to 
watch, not the state of the emotions, but of the will, 
to see that it does, not in word only, but in deed, so 
stand and risk all upon the truth. Thus fortified,^ 
the soul spreads to the breeze her pennant, inscribed 
with "Emanuel," and fears not to clear the shore and 
make for mid-ocean. If the sensibility rocks to the 
winds, rises and falls with the tides, or drifts with 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 189 

the currents of the sea ; if she is depressed as night 
darkens over and around her, and, anon, thrilled and 
exalted in the day's clear uprising, with joys "un- 
speakable and full of glory," as she sees God above 
and only God all around ; or if, again, she be strained 
to utmost tension by the storms which beat upon her, 
— it matters not. All is well. Christ is in the ship, 
and, at the right moment, he will arise and say to the 
sea, "Peace, be still ; " and there will be a great calm 
reaching the very depths of the soul. 

3. Satan, as a false philosopher, does men immense 
mischief by leading them into a perverted use of the 
faculty of judgment. To misuse this important mem- 
ber of the mental confederacy, is to warp the action 
of the whole mind. When the Scribes and Pharisees 
judged that Christ was an impostor, they would not, 
of course, bow to his instructions ; they must needs 
oppose him, and do their utmost to destroy his influ- 
ence. This false judgment would discolor all he 
could do or say in their behalf. Even his miracles, 
in giving sight to the blind or hearing to the deaf, 
would only suggest to their minds that he was an 
agent of Satan. They could not thus love or revere 
him. 

So, if a man has judged that he is not a sinner, as 
the Bible represents, he will not repent and believe 
the gospel. If one has judged that there is no mercy 
for him, as thousands have, it is certain he will not 



190 SATAN'S DEVICES AXD 

labor to obtain it. When the Christian judges that 
the grace of God is not sufficient for him, so that he 
can walk in the light and overcome the world, the 
certain result is, that he will walk in darkness down 
to his grave. His false judgment dooms him to this. 
If you deliberately decide, in your judgment, that 
the promises of God do not belong to you, that the 
provisions of grace are not for you, or that they are 
not available for you now, then, plainly, you have 
cast away a present gospel from your soul. This 
false judgment arrests, too, the work of your sanctifi- 
cation by the Spirit ; for he works by sealing upon 
the heart the truths and promises of God. In 
short, such an attitude of mind as effectually hinders 
the saving influences of Christianity from doing us 
good, as the prejudice of the Pharisees destroyed the 
power of Christ to be a Savior to them. In this 
way, the gospel, with all its fountains, and streams, 
and oceans of living water, is turned into a waste and 
desolate wilderness. Words can not describe the 
mischief which comes of thus perverting the office of 
the judgment. Let every one beware of Satan, by 
remembering not to judge according to appearances, 
not according to states of feeling, but according to 
God's testimony in his word, for this only is "right- 
eous judgment." An honest and true use of this 
faculty of the mind is, on the other hand, above all 
price. 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 191 

4. Satan aims to subordinate the memory to his 
purposes. This is one of the most important of our 
mental faculties, as, by it, the truth is to be treasured 
up and held for use. By the truth of God we are to 
be sanctified. But to be of much advantage to us, 
we must possess and hold it in the memory. Now, it 
is one law of the mind, that the memory will be 
deeply and permanently impressed in proportion to 
the wakefulness of the attention. But how easily is 
this turned off from the truths we hear or read, so 
that only a faint and ineffectual impression is made 
upon us ! The game of Satan, therefore, is to divert 
the attention. This he will do, even in the house of 
God, by a multitude of suggestions, and at the very 
moment when the things most important to be 
remembered are uttered. If he can not wholly 
prevent a good and true impression, he will, if pos- 
sible, warp it into something comparatively harmless 
to his ends. The method, then, by which Satan 
" catches away " the word sown in our hearts, and 
plants his own seeds of death there, is by turning the 
attention from the truth, and by fixing it where the 
evil thought will fall most impressively upon the mind. 
The thing to be done, on the other hand, is, not to 
let the attention swing loosely, like a weathercock in 
the wind, but, by a vigorous act of the will, hold It 
steadily and earnestly to the truth. It should be 
held there as the student holds his mind to the prob- 
lem, as the judge, to the case before him, and as 



192 Satan's devices and 

the imperiled mariner, to the chances of relief. Let 
the mind be educated to it. Gain the power by per- 
severing effort and rigid discipline ; otherwise Satan 
will steal away all the good seed from the soul, and 
turn the mind itself into a sieve, instead of a vessel 
honored and meet for the Master's use. 

5. It is a doctrine of Satanic philosophy, that the 
testimony of our consciousness as to our moral and 
spiritual states can not be relied upon. Admitting 
this, we must needs be in the greatest doubt and 
uncertainty respecting our personal relations to God. 
Our senses can, of course, give us no light; and, if 
we deny the validity of consciousness, as Satan would 
have us, there is no light for us. In the sphere of 
our experiences toward each other, the authority of 
consciousness is undisputed. By its witnessing, we 
know that we love our friends, that we confide in 
them, and that we are faithful or otherwise to the 
trusts committed to us ; we know what are our inten- 
tions, and what our chosen aims. 

By the same faculty of our minds, according to a 
true philosophy, we can lenow that we have chosen 
Christ as our portion, or that we have not done so ; 
that we have, or have not, a real intention to conform 
to his will and please him in all our ways ; that we 
do, or do not, really intrust ourselves to him for sal- 
vation, on the conditions of his gospel. Of course, 
we can not know our moral exercises as we know a 






THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 193 

mathematical demonstration, but we may so know 
them as to satisfy the mind, free it from doubt, and 
give it rest and confidence. So the wife knows her 
relations to her husband, the child, to the parent, and 
the friend, to the friend. 

With the mind encumbered with this philosophy, 
f falsely so called," we are unavoidably deprived of 
the testimony of the Spirit. There is no power, but 
that of consciousness, through which the Holy Ghost 
can give his assurances to our hearts. 

Thus does this false philosophy, so far as it is 
accepted as true, wither the life and cripple the 
power of Christian men. By it, the wings of God's 
eagles are clipped, and they can, not fly ; and the 
lambs of the flock are exposed to the wolf on every 
hand. 

The intelligent reader will scarcely need to be told, 
that, while he is to hold fast the testimony of his own 
conscious purpose of obedience and trust, it is, of 
course, necessary to guard against the various delu- 
sions by which Satan himself would seek to deceive 
us in reference to our moral states. This is ever- 
more to be done by appealing to the tests of God's 
word. 

6. We may profitably consider here the philosophy 
by which Satan leads men ff captive at his will." 

We have certain appetites, desires, susceptibilities, 
which demand gratification. Besides the common 
17 



194 satan's devices and 

bodily appetites, there is the desire for society, for 
reputation, for knowledge, for occupation; and the 
susceptibility which distinguishes us as male and 
female. These, and many others, God has implanted 
in our natures; and, in themselves, they are good. 
They are involuntary, and simply demand gratifica- 
tion without any reference to the question of right or 
wrong. The law which should regulate their gratifi- 
cation is not written upon the appetites themselves, 
and, therefore, men may involuntarily desire what 
they would have no right to appropriate. This regu- 
lating law is to be found rather in the reason, in the 
Bible, and in the lights of science. 

It is the office of the will, in its God-given sov- 
ereignty, to give or withhold the gratification which 
the desires demand — if the drunkard's appetite 
clamors for the glass, to say in reply, w Yes, take the 
burning draught," or to answer, "No, not a drop;'' 
and so it shall be. 

Motives reach the will both through the appetites 
and the reason. Those which come through the for- 
mer simply demand gratification because this is 
pleasurable. Those which come through the latter — 
the reason — bid the will to gratify the appetites 
according to the law of right. 

Now, in this exigency, Satan brings the whole 
strength of his influence and his lies to bear upon the 
will to induce a decision to gratify the appetites and 
desires, in ways forbidden by the reason and the 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 195 

moral law. He will stimulate them to an unnatural 
importunity for indulgence ; he will help men to con- 
clude that natural desires may, of right, have the 
very gratification they call for, without reference 
to any higher rule ; he will inflame the imagination, 
and set fire to the lusts of the flesh by a poisonous 
literature, and by all manner of appliances in art, in 
dress, in food, and in the customs of society, and thus, 
if he be allowed to do it, carry the will, and get it 
committed to the appetites rather than to the reason. 
The issue, then, pending before the mind, is fearful 
beyond the power of the finite mind to comprehend. 
If it shall yield but once, and trample upon the law 
of reason, at the bidding of the tempter, the risk is 
terrible; if twice or thrice, "the letting out of 
waters" has begun; if, by a course of repetitions, 
the habit of yielding becomes fixed, the victim is in 
the cataract, hard upon the precipice and the terrible 
abyss below ! In this way, the unregulated lusts of 
the lower nature gain the supremacy, and the will 
and reason break asunder. Then comes the most 
terrible of all calamities : God gives the victim up 
"to his own heart's lusts," and he is in the hands of 
the most merciless set of tyrants which earth or hell 
can furnish, — ambition, avarice, gluttony, sensuality, 
licentiousness, — and they assume the reins and drive 
whither they will. The restraints of reason are gone, 
and the soul is indeed w led captive by Satan at his 
will." Truth, with all her blessed angels, utterly 



196 SATAN'S DEVICES AND 

banished, the mind is swept on "in the broad road to 
death" by a tornado of lies and lusts. The con- 
science becomes all seared with the hot iron of sin 
and shame ; the imagination, no longer heaven-winged, 
is prone only to the earth ; the intellect, sharing the 
common degradation, lives on divine thought no 
longer ; the will expends its energies in gratifying 
fleshly appetites, when it should be creating blessings 
for a lost world, and opening fountains to send out 
living streams while the ages roll away. Especially, 
when a depraved sexual appetite gains the ascen- 
dency, natural affection, even, must soon die out; 
homes will be blasted ; children will be made worse 
than orphans, for the sake of guilty fellowship with 
forbidden lovers. 

This is a method of ruining souls, too, as Satan 
knows full well, by which his victims grow rapidly 
worse and worse, till they will glory in their shame, 
and take willingly, in their very foreheads, the seal 
of his kingdom and lordship. 

The character of Satan as a logician demands a 
moment's notice. Man has reason, and he will use it. 
The father of lies must, therefore, work his falsehoods 
into logical forms, in order to make them hold with 
reasoning minds. "To make the worse appear the 
better reason," to shape falsehood so as to make it 
pass for truth under the rigid scrutiny of the logician, 
is a great feat of the adversary. Thousands of good 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 197 

men are captured by Satanic logic. Many reason 
vaguely thus : Major premise, God has made me ; 
minor premise, God will take care of what he has 
made ; conclusion, therefore, I shall be saved. The 
falsehood lurks in the major premise, because it does 
not contain the whole truth : God has made us moral 
agents, and we have something to do ourselves to 
secure our salvation. A majority of Universalists 
have probably been made such by the reasoning con- 
tained in the following syllogisms : It is the dictate 
of infinite love and mercy to save all mankind ; God's 
love and mercy are infinite ; he will save all man- 
kind. Here, too, the lie is in the major premise, 
which assumes as true the very thing which demands 
proof, viz., that love and mercy dictate the salvation 
of all mankind, unconditionally. Again : God wishes 
the salvation of all men, as is manifest from his word 
and character ; being infinite in wisdom and power, 
he will surely bring his wishes to pass ; therefore, 
all men will be saved. Here the falsehood is in the 
minor premise. It is not true that God brings all 
his wishes to pass. He wishes men would not break 
his laws, and wrong and murder each other ; yet he 
does not compel them to do his pleasure, but leaves 
them, as moral agents, to do their own will, and 
holds them answerable at his bar for their sins. 

Again : impartiality is an attribute of God ; impar- 
tiality requires that, if any are saved, all should be ; 
therefore (since it is admitted that some will be) , all 
17* 



198 satan's devices and 

must be saved. But the minor premise is a most 
absurd falsehood. Impartiality requires only that 
the offer of salvation, with its conditions, should be 
the same for all ; and then, that all men should be 
treated exactly according to their characters. 

The true argument from God's love stands thus : 
It is the dictate of infinite love and mercy to save 
every one that will comply with the just and indis- 
pensable conditions of salvation; God's love and 
mercy are infinite ; therefore, he will save every one 
who repents of sin, believes the gospel, and submits 
to the divine authority ; in other words, he will save 
all whom he consistently can save. Any larger infer- 
ence than this from the love of God is totally false 
and illogical. 

Again : it is unreasonable to suppose that the 
punishment of sin will be materially longer than the 
time required to commit it ; sin is the work of a 
moment, or of a brief lifetime ; therefore, its punish- 
ment will not be eternal. Falsehood lurks in both 
these premises. In the first place, there is no rela- 
tion between the time required to commit the sin and 
its evil desert. All common sense forbids us to meas- 
ure the guilt of firing a city by the moment of time 
required to do it. 

But, moreover, sin in its essence, as distinguished 
from the external act, has the element of eternity in 
it, and is not the work of a moment, or of a brief life- 
time, at all. Stealing is the determination to appro- 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 199 

priate to yourself what belongs to another ; and this 
for all time. It is the mind's settled and continued 
choice. It can never end except by repentance, con- 
fession, and conversion ; and so the endless punish- 
ment of unrepented sin will only run parallel with 
the sin itself. 

Again : modern skepticism reasons thus : God has 
a universal law of progress and development, from 
lower to higher, for all his creation capable of such 
advancement ; man, of course, belongs to the creation, 
and is capable of progress ; therefore, mankind will uni- 
versally progress from the low state of sin to the com- 
plete purity and righteousness attainable in heaven. 
The Satanic element may be easily detected in this 
reasoning. We know of no law by which it is cer- 
tain that all men must and will advance from sin to 
holiness. There is an utter destitution of evidence 
that any moral influences whatever can necessitate the 
development of men in virtue. Men, by their consti- 
tutions, are as capable of progressing in wickedness 
as in holiness ; and they do progress in the direction 
of their supreme choices. All observation and expe- 
rience, as well as Scripture, proves that "evil men 
and seducers wax worse and worse," and that they 
do often, under the best possible moral influences, 
harden and corrupt their moral natures. 

Again : many are being led into grievous error by 
an argument which stands thus: the "death," the 
" destruction," the " perishing," or " burning up " of 



200 satan's devices and 

men, signifies the utter and endless extinction of their 
being ; the Bible teaches and experience proves that 
the wicked will K die," be " destroyed," will w perish," 
and be "burned up ; " therefore, the wicked will be 
utterly annihilated. But the major premise is pal- 
pably false. No such meaning is given now, nor 
ever has been, in any part or age of the world, to the 
term death, or any of its synonyms. The continued 
existence of men after death has been the belief of 
the race from the earliest periods. It was the faith 
of the Egyptians before the days of Moses. The 
Hebrews held the same view. The continued exist- 
ence of men in another life was so real to them, that a 
law, with the penalty of death, was required to pre- 
vent their substitution of the supposed counsels of the 
departed for the commandments of God. 

But our chapter is sufficiently extended. We have 
said enough, perhaps, to put the reader on his guard 
against Satan as a philosopher, theologian, and 
logician. 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 201 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE ALLIES OF SATAN. 
The devil and his angels. — Matt. 25 : 41. 

It is but natural to suppose that Satan will employ 
all the agents and instrumentalities he can, animate 
and inanimate, in this and other worlds, for the fur- 
therance of his malign purposes. The Bible repre- 
sents the fallen angels as his allies, and wicked men 
on the earth as his servants. 

The brief consideration of a few important princi- 
ples will help to make clear the subject of this chap- 
ter — the allies of Satan. 

First, then, sin is a unit. The law of God, which 
it violates, demands but one thing. That can be 
expressed in one, ten, or ten thousand specific com- 
mandments. Christ summed it up in two precepts ; 
Paul enunciated it by the one word, Love. That 
simple love which treats God as supreme in excel- 
lence, and in authority over us, and which practically 
regards the interests of our fellow-man as equal to 
our own, fulfills it. Each possible specific sin is but 
a transgression of this one principle. 

Again : the forms of sin are innumerable. The 



202 Satan's devices and 

wrong state of the mind, which the moral law forbids, 
may, with equal facility, express itself in all sorts of 
wrong outward deeds; as, on the other hand, the 
right state of the mind, which the same law enjoins, 
may manifest itself by all the right acts which have 
ever been put forth on earth or in heaven. 

Again : the radical state of mind in all transgress- 
ors, on earth or in hell, is the same, however numer- 
ous, or widely different, their outward acts of sin 
may be. There may be great constitutional differ- 
ences among men, giving rise to endless varieties of 
outward development ; there may, as in the case of 
the young ruler, be a natural beauty of character, 
vailing and seeming almost to overcome the deep- 
seated selfish greed within ; or there may be the 
undisguised and repulsive accompaniments which 
marked a Herod and a Nero ; and yet all may pro- 
ceed from the same fountain of natural selfishness. 
The thief has his way of securing his selfish ends ; the 
liar has his ; and so have the moralist, the devotee of 
fashion, the amiable worldling, and every unre- 
generate man. This is clearly the doctrine of the 
Bible. w They are all gone aside, they are altogether 
become filthy; there is none that doeth good; no, 
not one" (Ps. 14: 12). "Whosoever shall keep 
the whole law [outwardly], and yet offend in one 
point, he is guilty of all" (James 2: 10), because 
his supremely selfish purpose or will, which deliber- 
ately breaks a single commandment, involves the 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 203 

violation, in spirit, of all moral precepts. This is 
the bitter fountain from which all transgression flows. 

Again : all forms of sin are radically allied to, and 
in sympathy with each other. In a war of aristocracy 
against democracy, aristocrats, the world over, will 
be in sympathetic alliance with their warring breth- 
ren; for their own principles are involved in the 
struggle ; and they will, as far as their local selfish 
interests will allow, build them iron-clads, loan them 
money, create favorable public sentiment, turn truth 
into lies and lies into truth to strengthen their hands 
and weaken their opponents, and do, in short, what- 
ever they can to sustain their friends and keep the 
people down. It will even make little difference 
under what form of government they may live, or by 
what oaths and treaties they may be bound. And so, 
universally, all forms of sin and of virtue are, in the 
nature of the case, in intimate fellowship with each 
other. 

Again : all sin is against God as the rightful Sov- 
ereign of the universe. And so identical in principle 
are the interests of all moral beings, that it is impos- 
sible to sin against one without sinning against all ; 
and David could say to his Maker truly, " Against 
thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in 
thy sight;" and Jesus could declare, "Inasmuch as 
ye have done it unto one of the least of these my 
brethren, ye have done it unto me." 

Again : the alliance between the Devil and his 



204 satan's devices axd 

angels is an alliance against God, and all beings 
over whose interests the moral law spreads its segis 
— an alliance formed by the force of homogeneous 
principles, by the action of the natural impulse to 
fortify, strengthen, and protect ourselves, and by 
virtue of those laws of our being which spontaneously 
impel us to take part with those who are in fellow- 
ship and sympathy with us, in thought, feeling, and 
purpose. Chemical affinities are not more unvarying 
than are moral and spiritual ones. Our mental and 
spiritual states have an attracting and a repelling 
power, but faintly shadowed forth by those of the 
material world. 

A^ain : whether Satan be an absolute sovereign in 
his dominions, or a representative one, elected by 
the parliament of hell, his subjects are all made such 
by their own free choice and preference. The alli- 
ance between them is, therefore, intimate and power- 
ful. His servants are known, in the Bible, as his 
children. He is their father and their god. They 
trust in him ; they adopt his principles ; they obey 
and imitate him. They cleave to him, in spite of 
the remonstrances of reason and conscience, and the 
authority and infinite love of God. They credit his 
word rather than that of Him who can not lie. They 
serve their father with a zeal worthy of a better son- 
ship, and that, while they know full well that they 
are trampling upon the blood of Christ, and exposing 
themselves to his eternal anathema. The alliance, 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 205 

indeed, is not formal, as between states, but, being a 
thing of life and of sympathetic gravitation, it is even 
more radical and effective. 

If these principles are correct, it follows that every 
unregenerate sinner in the moral universe is in alli- 
ance with Satan. Supremely selfish men on earth 
are as really his allies as if they were in the spirit 
world doing his bidding. They do not perform the 
same service as his disembodied angels, but they 
build his theaters, they run his distilleries, they 
oppress the poor, they tempt the weak, they pervert 
justice, and, in the place of true religion, they do 
but make a "fair show in the flesh." Paul affirms 
that "the poison of asps is under their lips," that 
their "mouth is full of cursing and bitterness," that 
" their feet are swift to shed blood," and that " de- 
struction and misery are in their ways." In that 
mightiest war known in the world, in which Satan 
leads his hosts against the Eedeemer of mankind, to 
annihilate the principles which shone in his life, and 
which he sealed with his blood on Calvary, all the 
rejecters of Christ are the inflexible allies of his great 
enemy, the Devil. They will not have Christ to 
reign over them ; they oppose him with the whole 
force of their example ; they spurn the invitations of 
his love and mercy. The Bible clearly asserts the 
moral hostility of the unregenerate to Christ. They 
"hate him," and that, "without a cause." "The car- 
nal mind is enmity against God." Eepresentative 
18 



206 satan's devices and 

men cried out against him, and said, w Crucify him, 
crucify him ; " and then, that their cry might be 
heard, welcomed the guilt of the unparalleled crime, 
as the awful inheritance of themselves and their chil- 
dren forever (Matt. 27 : 25). The deed was done in 
order that, in the strong language of Cicero, — w ab 
oculis, auribusque et omni cogitatione hominum re?no- 
vendum esse," — the man might be removed from the 
sight, hearing, and thought of every one. It is not 
certain that Satan has any other allies who can serve 
him as well on the earth as do they who trample upon 
the body of the Son of God, and count the blood of 
his covenant an unholy thing, and do despite unto 
the Spirit of grace (Heb. 10:29). 

All institutions and corporations which, instead of 
basing themselves upon the general good, organize 
the selfishness of men, and give efficiency to that, arc 
powerful instrumentalities in alliance with Satan. 
Corrupt governments, which oppress the poor, which 
turn away judgment backward, allow justice to stand 
afar oil', and truth to fall in the street, so that equity 
can not enter (Is. 59 : 14), are fearful allies of Satan. 
They are the destructive beasts which appear in 
apocalyptic vision, with numerous horns, and iron 
teeth, and breath of fire and smoke, to wound and 
slay in the earth, and fill it with blasphemies. Still 
worse, if possible, is a great ecclesiastical institution, 
by which the supreme selfishness of men is organized 
into the forms of false religion. With such, the cor- 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 207 

rupt kings of the earth commit fornication, and the 
inhabitants of the world are made drunk with the 
wine furnished at the guilty banquet (Eev. 17 : 2). 
The destructive power of human depravity becomes 
immensely increased, when, by such establishments, 
it is combined and centralized. 

All systems of infidelity and of unsound philosophy 
which prevent the " manifestation of the truth " as it 
is in Christ Jesus, are to be regarded as powerful 
forces in alliance with Satan. 

All that, in man's nature, habits, and circumstances, 
which Satan can use for the furtherance of his ma- 
licious purposes, must be viewed in the same way. 
If one has a corrupt imagination, a dishonest judg- 
ment, a proud heart, a self-will ; if one has a tongue 
which is " set on fire of hell," which " walketh through 
the earth," and w deviseth mischief like a razor ; " if 
one has a vicious propensity for the bottle, the weed, 
the dice, or the cards, — he is an ally of Satan, both 
against himself and all others who can be reached by 
his example. 

But let it not be supposed that the believer's salva- 
tion is put in jeopardy, even by the combined power 
of Satan and his allies. Out of Christ, the case is, 
indeed, hopeless. In him, it is far otherwise. The 
Captain of our salvation, omnipotent himself, has 
abundant allies in the work of our redemption. 
Every holy mind in the universe is with him ; every 
truth, every conscience, every attribute of man's 



208 satan's devices and 

higher nature, is on his side. The experience of all 
ages works with him ; an innumerable " cloud of wit- 
nesses" confirms his gospel; "all power is given 
unto him ; " all knowledge and wisdom are his ; all 
agencies, willingly or by his overruling, shall minis- 
ter to the truth, and he can not fail to carry into 
complete and glorious execution the purposes of his 
love and mercy. 

But every man must decide for himself the 
solemn question whether he will be an eternal ally 
of Satan, to be cast with him into "the lake of 
fire," whatever it may be, or become a friend and 
follower of Christ, and a joint heir with him to the 
everlasting throne of peace and righteousness, and to 
all the glories of his kingdom forever. The issue is 
momentous ! Let every man stand in awe before it, 
and calmly form that decision by which he would 
have his eternal destiny settled. 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 209 



CHAPTEE XXV. 

SATAN THE FOE OF OUR SANCTIFICATION AND GROWTH IN 

GRACE. 

Even as Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might 
cleanse it with the washing of water by the word; that he might present it to 
himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing ; but 
that it should be holy and without blemish.— Eph. 5 : 25-27. 

During the last twenty-five years, unwonted atten- 
tion has been given to the subject of Christian sanc- 
tification, or the "Higher Christian Life." Many, 
quickened by the discussion, have "left the things 
which are behind," and advanced from Moses, as their 
teacher, to Christ and the Spirit, — from the "bondage 
of the law" to the "liberty of the gospel." It is a 
hopeful sign of the times that there is an increasing 
demand for light on this subject. Much that is 
inspiring has been written ; but, instead of exhausting 
the subject, and satisfying the public mind, it has 
only opened a mine which invites further explora- 
tion. 

The writer has supposed that this doctrine might 
be presented from such a stand-point as would make 
its truth obvious to Christians of all denominations, 
clear it from prejudice, and commend it to the joy- 
ful acceptance of all the friends of Christ. 
18* 



210 satan's devices and 

The necessity of a higher standard of holiness 
admits of but one opinion. "Whatever then, may help 
to make clear the way to a higher religious attainment, 
to show "what is the greatness of his power to 
us-ward who believe," and so to counteract the efforts 
of Satan to hold the church in bondage to the world, 
ought certainly to be set forth and earnestly pondered. 

In order to expose Satan as the foe of our more 
complete spiritual development, we must first con- 
sider what is the divine method of sanctifying the 
church. This we propose to undertake in several 
successive sections. 

Section I. 

Theories of the Different Schools considered, and 
shown to differ only in Speculative, not Essential 
Points. 

All agree that God requires men to be holy. "Be 
ye holy, for I am holy," is the changeless command. 
But there are, growing out of divergent systems of 
philosophy, three principal methods of interpreting 
the law of God as the standard of holiness, which 
give rise to different theories of sanctification. 

One class of theologians hold, that man, by the 
fall, has lost a portion of his ability to love and obey 
God, and is, therefore, positively unable to obey per- 
fectly the divine law. If a man were to devote to 
God all the power he has, he would yet fall short of 






THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 211 

obedience to the law, and remain unholy. But since 
w without holiness no man shall see the Lord," how is 
any one to enter heaven? It is replied, by the impu- 
tation of Christ's righteousness to the believer. 

Another class of theologians, with the same under- 
lying philosophy of inability to meet the full claims 
of the moral law, adopt the idea, as the writer under- 
stands, that God has set aside the original precept of 
his law as the standard of holiness, and given instead 
thereof, in the gospel, another law leveled to man's 
present capacities. Obedience to this rule being 
possible, it is required as the condition of entering 
heaven, and is holiness. 

Another class hold that the law of God adapts 
itself to all moral agents, whatever their capacities. 
If they have, by sin, destroyed a part of their power 
to love God, the law does not still require what they 
have no power to render. It is insisted that obliga- 
tion and ability are equal ; that the one precept comes 
to each moral agent in the universe, archangel, 
angel, fallen angel, man, child, saint or sinner, 
feeble minded or strong, and says, "Love God with 
all thy heart, with all thy might, and with all thy 
strength." The law is a unit, and unchangeable, in 
the sense of requiring the devotion to God of the 
whole loving power of each of its innumerable sub- 
jects. It is variable, in the sense of requiring differ- 
ent measures of love and service, according to the 
different capacities of moral beings. To obey the 
law in this sense, it is said, is to be holy. 



212 satan's devices and 

Now, these several schools agree, that sinners are 
to be justified before God only on the ground of 
Christ's righteousness, never on the ground of their 
own holiness. It is not material whether this fact be 
named the doctrine of imputation, or justification by 
the righteousness of Christ. They agree also in the 
essential fact, that the condition of salvation is, that 
the whole heart, all the loving power a man possesses, 
shall be unreservedly and trustfully surrendered to 
God ; no part of this price may be kept back. The 
condition is the same in justification, the beginning 
of the process of salvation, and in sanctification, the 
carrying forward and completion of the work. The 
inability to do more is no excuse for refusing to do 
this. 

Princeton, Andover, Oberlin, Newton, and Middle- 
town make precisely the same issue with the sinner. 
He has broken God's law, and is dead in sin. He 
can be justified only by devoting his whole being to 
God, accepting Christ as his Lord and Master, and 
trusting him for pardon and life. They would also 
instruct the Christian seeking for sanctification, in 
the same words : fr Devote your whole being to God ; 
accept Christ as your sanctifier by the Holy Spirit, 
and wait upon him by faith for the blessing." They 
agree as to the thing, but differ in their philosophy 
of it. But this is not material. 

Here it should be said, that Christians are not 
called upon to test their characters by either inter- 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 213 

pretation of the law, technically considered. We are 
f not under the law," that we must answer directly to 
its claims, but "under grace," that we should be jus- 
tified by faith in Christ. The practical question for 
us is this : Are we truly in Christ, through compli- 
ance with the terms on which he promises salvation ? 
If we are, all is well ; for he is to us the " end of the 
law," and no condemnation, even from Sinai, shall 
reach us. Our acceptance with the Mediator is per- 
fect. Here, all schools agree. 

On the condition necessary to discipleship, Christ 
undertakes the work of our salvation ; to fashion these 
hearts of ours into temples for his own occupancy, 
and to make us meet for the inheritance of the saints. 
Jesus is now the potter, and the believer the willing 
clay. Our salvation, from its incipiency on to its 
eternally abounding and expanding results in holiness, 
shall now be wrought in us by the Holy Spirit, who 
shall change us from glory to glory into the divine 
image. 

Section n. 

All Attainments in the Divine Life, the Result of 
Knowing God in the Heart. 

If this proposition be true, it will help to simplify 
and render clear the whole subject of sanctification. 
Let us carefully consider it in the light of the Bible. 

The New Covenant, the highest and best God has 
ever made with man, is essentially a promise of life, 



214 satan's devices and 

through the knowledge of himself. w I will put my 
laws into their minds, and write them in their hearts ; 
and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me 
a people," is simply a promise of God that he will so 
reveal to his people his laws, his truth, his character, 
that they shall become the ruling forces of their 
moral being. He will so reveal himself, that they 
will not have to teach each other, saying, "Know the 
Lord" and that they "shall know him from the least 
to the greatest" independently of the imperfect teach- 
ings of men, and by the sure light of his Spirit. All 
the spiritual treasures of the Xew Testament come, 
therefore, from knowing the Lord. 

Jesus, in his intercessory prayer (John 17: 3), 
says, "And this is life eternal, that they might know 
thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou 
hast sent." Eternal life here does not mean eternal 
existence, for knowledge has no tendency to secure 
that. The wicked, men and devils, exist, but they 
have not this blessed life. The passage gives us 
Christ's definition of eternal life, and makes it iden- 
tical with, or inseparable from knowing God. Its 
elements, like those of God's own life, are, doubtless, 
moral purity and holy blessedness. It includes all 
gracious affections toward God, love, faith, and obe- 
dience, in all their modifications. It could not exist, 
therefore, except as the result of knowing God. 

Spiritual life, we are assured by the apostle, origi- 
nates not from " a corruptible seed, but an incorrupti- 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 215 

ble, even the word of God, which liveth and abideth 
forever." In order to its being to us the seed of 
spiritual life, the word of God must, of course, be 
made known to the soul. 

The new man is renewed in knowledge; and to 
f grow in grace " is made synonymous with growing 
w in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ " (2 Pet. 
3:18; Col. 3:10). 

Spiritual infancy and childhood are synonymous 
with being ?? unskillful in the word of righteousness" 
while spiritual age and maturity are ascribed only to 
such as have their spiritual w senses exercised to dis- 
cern knowledge " to know good and evil (Heb. 5 : 
12-14). 

According to Peter (2 Pet. 1 : 3-5), God, by his 
divine power, gives us — works into our experience — 
£ all things that pertain to life and godliness through 
the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and 
virtue" Through this knowledge, all the exceeding 
great and precious promises become ours, to make us 
partakers of the divine moral nature, and to deliver 
us from the corruption that is in the world through 
lust. The promises become life-giving through the 
knowledge, by the Spirit, of the Promiser. 

The passage in 2 Cor. 4 : 4-6, is very conclusive 
under this head. It represents Satan as blinding the 
minds of men through unbelief, " lest the light of the 
glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God," 
and in whom the w light of the knowledge of the glory 



216 satan's devices and 

of God " shines, should reach, and save men from sin 
and death. 

Isaiah saw this truth when he said (53 : 11), "By 
his knowledge " — i. e., knowledge of him, "shall my 
righteous servant justify many." Jeremiah under- 
stood it too, when he makes God say (3 : 15), "And 
I will give you pastors according to my heart, which 
shall feed you with knowledge and understanding " 
Paul reflects this view when, in his own experience, 
he counts all things but loss for the excellency of the 
knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord ; and where he 
declares to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 4 : 15) , that he has 
begotten them through the gospel, which he had made 
known unto them. The apostle John is full of the 
doctrine also, that he that hath the knowledge of the 
Son hath life, and he that hath it not hath not life. 

On the other hand, Paul (Eph. 4:18) affirms that 
we are alienated from the life of God through the 
ignorance of him, in which sin has involved us ; thus 
showing that the loss of the true knowledge of God 
brings the death, as the receiving of it, through the 
Spirit, restores the life promised in the gospel. 

To be without God and without hope in the world 
is to be strangers from the covenants of promise ; i. e., 
to be spiritually ignorant of them (Eph. 2 : 12). 

The whole heathen world was given over to cor- 
ruption and reprobation, on the simple ground that 
they were unwilling to retain God in their knowledge 
(Rom. 1 : 28) ; and this not in an arbitrary way, but 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 217 

because such a result was unavoidable where the 
knowledge of God was not cherished as a living 
and saving moral force. When Christ comes in 
flaming fire, it will be to take "vengeance on those 
that knoiv not God" (2 Thess. 1:8), showing that 
their willing ignorance of him is the sin which in- 
volves their ruin. 

The whole scheme of salvation beautifully harmo- 
nizes w T ith this view. The object of God, in revela- 
tion, is to acquaint his creatures with himself, that 
they may be at peace (Job 22 : 21). He leads them 
through the wilderness that he may instruct them. 
He reveals himself in his word and works, that men 
may know him and live. He laments over his peo- 
ple that they do not know him, not even as well as 
f the ox knoweth his owner, or the ass his master's 
crib," that they do not consider (Isa. 1:3). 

The mission of the Spirit, as we shall soon more 
fully see, is essentially to reveal to the eye of faith 
the things of Christ as the means of molding the 
hearts and lives of men into his image from glory to 
glory, as they reach one degree of knowledge after 
another. "It doth not yet appear what we shall be," 
for here we only know in part ; and the measure of 
our life is limited by the measure of our spiritual 
knowledge ; but when he shall appear, and we see 
him as he is, the fullness of our knowledge of him 
will then give us the completed life of love and 
blessedness, of holiness and happiness in heaven. 
19 



218 satan's devices and 



Section HE. 

This Knowledge the Exclusive Gift of the Spirit — 
its Positive and Assuring Nature. 

God alone is competent to reveal himself. Unaided 
human faculties, surely, can not reach the saving 
knowledge of the Lord. The Scriptures abundantly 
show that to impart this knowledge is the special 
mission of the Holy Spirit. 

When Peter responded to our Lord's question 
(Matt. 16 : 13-17), by saying, "Thou art the Christ, 
the Son of the living God," Jesus replied, "Blessed 
art thou, Simon Bar-jona ; for flesh and blood hath 
not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is in 
heaven." God had himself, then, given to Peter a 
knowledge of the Messiah which man could not im- 
part ; yea, which he could not gain, in the use of his 
mere human faculties, by holding intercourse with 
him in the flesh. 

Paul says (1 Cor. 12 : 3), that "no man can say 
that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost;" 
meaning, evidently, that no man can say it of his 
own experimental knowledge, except he has learned 
it of the Spirit. 

The great point which Paul makes, in the second 
chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians, is, that 
the things of God can be known only by the Spirit 
of God. In his natural state, man can not discern 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 219 

them ; they are even foolishness to him until spiritu- 
ally discerned. 

We have, in a former chapter, dwelt upon the ob- 
vious fact that it is naturally impossible for one being 
personally to reveal another, and most of all, for a 
finite one so to make ki^jpwn the Infinite. We con- 
clude, therefore, both with reason and revelation, 
that God himself is the great and only ultimate source 
of that divine, life-giving knowledge, on which, from 
first to last, our salvation depends. 

This knowledge of God, which he, by his Spirit, 
gives, is, moreover, of a positive nature; it is knowl- 
edge. The difference between knowing and surmis- 
ing is very great and radical. A man may suppose 
himself to be the heir of a large fortune, and the 
hope that he is so will afford him more or less satis- 
faction; but when he knows it, as he knows he lives, 
the legacy at once enters into all his experiences, and 
gives him the consciousness of wealth. All sense of 
poverty disappears, and the good which money can 
bestow becomes a matter of natural and habitual 
enjoyment. 

Now, this knowledge of our inheritance in Christ is 
what the church most of all needs. It is what she 
can and ought to have. It is by the same laws of 
mind, that, when God, in all his blessed, life-giving 
relations to ourselves, is made knoicn to us, his pre- 
cious truths enter into all our experiences, into our 
very life, shape our characters, and determine all our 



220 satan's devices and 

moral unfoldings. Both the heart and the outward 
life are influenced by them. Falling short of this 
real knowledge, we can only speculate about God ; 
we can guess that this is true, and that is false; we 
can believe that he will do this, and will not do that ; 
but such views can give the soul no life, no resurrec- 
tion from the death of sin, no salvation. 
- But some will say, "How can the Spirit make us 
to know the things of God, so as to lift us up from 
doubt to assurance?" It may help some minds to 
consider this question, although it may be difficult to 
understand the hoic y before the spiritual illumination 
is actually enjoyed. 

We do know some things in a way that excludes 
all uncertainty. We thus know the axiom, that the 
whole of a thing is greater than any of its parts, and 
the principle, that every event must have a cause. 
We know our own existence, and that we have the 
power of thought, feeling, and action. 

With this faculty of certain, intuitive knowledge, 
w r hich we call the reason, the mind apprehends some 
things directly. They stand out so openly and un- 
mistakably that we want no proof of them. We see 
them with a clearness which no reasoning can increase. 
God, with his omniscient eye, sees all things in this 
way, and has no need of intermediate steps to gain 
knowledge of any kind. But it is not so with us. 
What we do not see intuitively, w r e are to learn by 
other means. We resort to the reasoning process, 



THE BELIE VER's VICTORY. 221 

and by this we may often gain the same certainty of 
: knowledge, as when we apprehend it by the eye of 
reason. Indeed, the reasoning process is nothing 
but the effort of the mind to bring objects before this 
faculty of certain knowledge — a sort of telescope, by 
the use of which we would bring such objects within 
the mind's range of vision. The syllogism is a kind 
of ladder on which we run up for the sake of a better 
and wider view. The reasoning we adopt may not 
always bring us the assured knowledge we seek ; the 
ladder may be too short, or the telescope may not 
have sufficient power, or we may fail to point it 
correctly ; but it can not be denied that we gain 
jsome certain knowledge by our reasoning processes. 
Some truth becomes thus manifested to the faculty of 
certain knowledge, to the exclusion of all disturbing 
doubt and anxiety. The mind is assured and at 
rest. 

But, beyond all that we can learn by our reasoning 
powers, we have the explicit and positive promise of 
God, that he will make himself known to us. It is 
not material that we should know just how the Spirit 
can make real to us the manifestation of divine things. 
He is pledged to do it, and this is enough. Surely, 
He who has given us the power to know, will not fail 
to give us the promised knowledge. He that hath 
made the eye, shall he not cause it to see? Yes, he 
will give the soul a knowledge of himself on which 
we can rest, as on the bosom of the Infinite. Doubt 
19* 



222 satan's devices and 






will die, and the soul shall say with Job, w I know that 
my Kedeemer liveth," and shall feel the glorious 
pulsations of eternal life throbbing through all the 
channels of its being. 

The Spirit may, of course, employ all methods of 
communicating the things of God to the soul. He 
may exhibit them directly to the eye of the reason, or 
through the written word, or by his providences ; 
through his works, as we look on flower or dew-drop 
below, or the stars above, or, through our processes 
of reasoning. 

When the disciples asked Jesus how he could mani- 
fest himself to them, and not be seen by the world, 
he explained the promise by saying, that he and the 
Father would come and make their abode with them. 
In other words, the manifestation should be as real as 
that of the friends with whom we dwell. They did 
not understand from the promise of the manifestation 
how much it meant ; but when it came on the day of 
Pentecost, they knew it all. 

Human minds may, and they often do, know each 
other with an assurance which results in a happy 
unity of trust and love. Let it not be doubted, then, 
that the divine and human mind may know each 
other with a more perfect assurance, and with far 
higher and richer results. 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 223 



Section IV. 

Conditions of Receiving this Life-giving Knowledge 
of God. — A Theological Difficulty met. 

Of faith, as the great Bible condition of salvation, 
we shall speak hereafter. We wish now to call 
attention to some things which are included in faith, 
but which need a distinct notice. 

There must, then, be in the mind a substantially 
correct idea of Christianity, as appears from the 
sketch in Chapter XI. The right knowledge of God 
logically produces the true Christian life in the soul, 
and no other. But if a man's idea is, that piety con- 
sists in a mere hope of heaven, in pleasurable religious 
emotions, in good wishes toward God and man, or in 
the performance of certain external duties, instead of 
a real moral oneness with God, he will unconsciously 
modify the knowledge of God as it comes to his 
mind, to make it harmonize with his idea, and pro- 
mote what he calls piety. He will deceive himself, 
and build on the sand. If, on the other hand, he has 
the true idea, the knowledge of God as he is will 
meet his case, and secure its own legitimate result, 
the true Christian life. We must, then, start with the 
conception, that to serve and honor God, to do his 
will, to reflect his truth, to accept the suffering and 
the blessing he may appoint us, with himself for our 
portion, is the one and only business of our exist- 



224 SATAN'S DEVICES A^D 

ence. Every thing else is subordinate to this, and 
included in it. 

There must be intense hungering and thirsting 
after the knowledge of God. "If thou criest after 
knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understand- 
ing, — if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for 
her as for hid treasures, — then shalt thou understand 
the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God 
(Prov. 2 : 3-5). It is well known how eagerly men 
seek after gold. When, in like way, they put their 
whole heart upon finding the saving knowledge of 
God, they have this express promise that they shall 
find it. 

There must be also the teachable spirit — a readiness 
to obey all truth as soon as discovered. The pupil 
must bow implicitly to the Divine Teacher in the ex- 
ercise of a child-like and reverent spirit, for this is the 
key which opens the door to the incoming of knowl- 
edge. The will must be submissive and true. 

Some theologians may start a difficulty here thus : 
To have the will brought into this state of submission 
is only possible as the result of knowing God, and 
yet you make it the condition of knowing him v Do 
you not, then, require salvation as the condition of 
salvation? If you say the will must first be submis- 
sive in order to saving knowledge, and if only this 
very knowledge can bring the will into this state, 
then how is salvation possible? 

Reply : The submission of the will to the light it 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 225 

has is not the whole of salvation, any more than the 
determination of a hungry man to eat offered food is 
the whole of salvation to the body from starvation. 
The food must be eaten and assimilated. Again : 
that special knowledge of God which gives eternal 
life is not the only knowledge of God which the soul 
needs, and to which the will must bow. Every mind 
has some light by nature ; and we know the condition 
of having more is, that we submit to and follow thato 
The promise is, that we shall know savingly "if we 
follow on to know." The Spirit has a double minis- 
try. One part of his mission is to give a knowledge 
of God which works condemnation, convicts of sin, 
sweeps away excuses, destroys self-righteous hope, 
induces repentance and turning to God. This done, 
another and higher part of his mission is to take of 
the things of Jesus and show them unto us — to mani- 
fest God in Christ to the inner man, his truth, his love, 
in a way to put us in possession of the very life of 
God from which sin has alienated us, thus completing 
the process of our spiritual birth. The first part of 
the Spirit's work is the condition of the second. 
According to the distinction of President Edwards, 
the former is the Spirit's work on the mind, the latter 
in it. To know some things about God, works re- 
pentance, submission, hope ; to know other things, 
gives life, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. 

Not only does the mode of the Spirit with the sin- 
ner change, at the point of submission and repentance, 



226 Satan's devices and 

but the radical position of the sinner himself is 
changed. He occupies an entirely new stand-point. 
To that which he now sees, he was blind before. 
Truth has displaced falsehood from his mind ; all 
God's truths, all the precious exhibitions of his love 
and goodness in his works and word, have now their 
proper adjustment before his mind ; and, as the 
Spirit lays open to his inner view their deep and 
eternal significance, and gives him something of 
God's own conception of benevolence and mercy, the 
currents of eternal life flow sweetly, or roll deeply, 
or surge resistlessly through all the domain of his 
moral and spiritual being. 

Too much importance can not be attached to main- 
taining an inflexibly obedient will, as the condition of 
all spiritual life and knowledge. 

Section V. 

Tlte Relations of Revealed Truth to our Growing 
Sanctification. 

The prayer of Christ for his people is, "Sanctify 
them through thy truth ; thy word is truth." The 
w^ord here referred to is, doubtless, the written reve- 
lation. 

In considering this topic, we must discriminate 
between the truth as a mere form of words, and as a 
moral power working the sanctification of the soul. 
Words, in themselves, are mere signs which are used 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 227 

to give expression to thought, and feeling, and pur- 
pose. When men use words, a human meaning only 
is put into them, and they express only what is finite, 
weak, and imperfect. When God uses them, they 
express and convey his infinite thought and purpose. 
* Let there be light " gave expression to the divine 
omnipotence, and created the worlds. His word, 
when he issues it, opens the sea or closes it ; it exe- 
cutes his will. It carries with it the whole mind- 
force of Jehovah. 

The Bible is written in the language of men ; and 
the subtle influence of unbelief leads them, too often, 
to attach only a human significance to it. They read 
it as if it expressed only what one finite mind can 
express to another ; and thus the gospel ceases to be 
the power of God unto salvation — the promises of 
Christ weigh and mean no more than the promises of 
men. The Bible reveals the truth as far as mere 
words can do it. But something is demanded 
beyond the words themselves. Let God use these 
words of Holy Scripture, let the Divine Spirit set 
them vibrating on our mental ear as with the voice of 
the Almighty, so that they shall express and manifest 
to the soul God's own state of mind, his love, his 
infinite power and excellence, his nearness, his rela- 
tions to us and ours to him, and then they carry with 
them an infinitude of spiritual and saving energy, of 
which the soul partakes unto its sanctification. The 
gospel is no longer the word of man, but the 



228 satan's devices akd 

power and wisdom of God himself to all who re- 
ceive it. » 

The Scriptures, then, consist of a collection of 
words as symbols, through which God seeks to reveal 
himself, and lay open his mind and heart to men, for 
their sanctification. But these words or symbols 
become effective to this end only when the Holy 
Spirit is heard speaking through them to the heart of 
faith. 

Section VI. 

The Relation between knowing God by the Spirit, 
and the Enjoyment of the Life of Holiness. 

In the first place, it will not be doubted that 
God has constituted us for the enjoyment of spir- 
itual blessedness, of life in all its fullness and 
perfection. 

We know that he has made the human, in the 
image and likeness of the divine mind. Our mental 
and moral faculties are so like God's, that we may 
be in our measure, as he calls us to be, like him. We 
can reason with him, prove him, think his thoughts, 
and conform to his will. The same things, therefore, 
which constitute the moral life, the holy blessedness 
and purity of God, will, when attained, constitute 
ours. To have the "life of God" is but to have his 
state of mind. To live for the same end, to love 
supremely what he so loves, to hate what he hates, 
to prefer and receive his thoughts, feelings, and pur- 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 229 

poses as our own, will as certainly give us eternal 
life, as they give it to him. 

And, again, the object he has in manifesting him- 
self to us is, evidently, to beget in us, in our meas- 
ure, his own character and experiences. He aims 
to make us partakers of his will, his motives, his 
ends, and, so, of the "divine nature." The especial 
work of the Spirit is, by giving us the knowledge of 
God, to change us into his moral image and life, from 
glory to glory, and thus to fit us to enjoy him for- 
ever. 

From all this it follows conclusively, that, so far 
forth as we receive the true knowledge of God obe- 
diently from the Holy Spirit, the enjoyment of the 
promised eternal life is a fixed and glorious result ; 
we must become joyful partakers of his holiness, his 
patience, his love, his blessedness. 

Section VXL 

The Natural and Life-giving Effect upon the Mind 
of knowing, from Heaven, certain Definite Things 
concerning God and ourselves — concerning His 
Relations to us and ours to Him. 

We have just seen that the knowledge of God, by 
the Spirit, carries with it the elements of eternal life 
to the soul. Let us, then, consider the natural 
result of so knowing certain specific things. 

Take, first, the knowledge that our sins are all for- 
20 



230 



given, and blotted from the book of God's remem- 
brance. If the way of the Spirit with a man has 
been to penetrate him deeply with a knowledge of 
his guilt ; if he has seen its exceeding sinfulness ; 
if the law has come home to him as it came to Paul, 
annihilating his self-righteousness, and impaling his 
trembling soul upon the points of its burning wrath ; 
if he has been made to see himself in the men who 
cried, "Crucify him, crucify him," or in him who 
struck the death-spear to the Savior's heart ; if he 
has seen the great river of righteous blood, which, 
from the days of Abel, sin has shed, flooding his 
soul with all its guilt because he had rejected and 
despised Him who alone could stay that flood ; and 
then learns, from the Holy Spirit, that his sin is all 
forgiven him, and washed away in that Redeemer's 
blood, — he will naturally have an experience of the 
greatest intensity. To know that lie — such a wretch — 
is redeemed and adopted into the family of God, and 
sealed for eternal glory, must go far to reconstruct 
his character, and develop in his soul a new and 
divine life. 

Take, again, the simple fact of God's loving and 
abiding presence, sweetly manifested as a reality to 
the soul's inner consciousness. The result is, that we 
know and feel, that we live, and move, and have our 
being in him, as the body lives, and moves, and has 
its being in the atmosphere which surrounds it. The 
soul communes with him as with an intimate, present 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 231 

friend. Prayer is no longer an effort to address God 
in the distant heavens, but is as natural, and easy, 
and spontaneous as the communion, face to face, of 
loving friends. It is not limited to particular hours 
and forms, but goes on very much as two kindred 
and loving minds, dwelling together, will, by the 
laws of want and suggestion, and by the very ten- 
dency of love to communicate, be always expressing 
themselves to each other. 

This presence of God may sometimes dazzle and 
almost blind the soul with its effulgence, as with 
Moses when God showed him something of his glory. 
But, generally, the Lord will so manifest his pres- 
ence that it will be to the soul, what the air is to the 
body, the natural, healthy, life-giving, and most 
satisfying element in which it is possible to live. 
When, by this manifestation, the believer's heart 
becomes the Shekinah wherein Jehovah dwells, it 
must have a life rich with all heavenly elements. 

In this knowledge of God's glorious presence, 
there is a pow T er to save of immeasurable mag- 
nitude. Nothing can so nearly extinguish temptation 
as this. It fortifies the soul at all points ; it over- 
comes that unsatisfied state of the mind which is the 
hope and strength of the adversary ; it removes the 
darkness of sin, and strips the disguises from the 
father of lies. "Moses endured as seeing Him who 
is invisible." It is in the felt absence of the Deliverer 
that we are exposed to the rake of temptation. When 



232 satan's devices and 

Jesus was taken by his murderers from the disciples, 
so that they were K in that hour " deprived of his con- 
scious and sympathizing presence, they all forsook 
him and fled before the storm. They knew not yet 
his invisible, spiritual nearness ; but, on the day of 
Pentecost, when he was thus manifested to them, 
one could chase a thousand, and two put ten thou- 
sand to flight. Nothing could stand before them when 
they knew God's presence as a wall of fire round 
about and a glory overshadowing them. 

When, in addition to this, God comes to be known 
in his omniscience, omnipotence, and eternity; when 
he discloses himself in his moral attributes, his infi- 
nite benevolence and love, his wisdom, his justice, 
his mercy, and his patience, there results to the 
believer a fullness of life which makes him exclaim, 
M O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and 
knowledge of God ! How unsearchable are his judg- 
ments, and his ways past finding out ! " 

Take, again, that fact revealed in the gospel, that 
God unites himself to us in all blessed relations, as 
the branch is united to the vine ; that he makes his 
own life the source and wasteless fountain of ours, 
and ordains that, because he lives, we shall live also. 
To know this oneness with him, by the Holy Spirit, 
is full of immortality. It is no longer a cold, con- 
structive union, formed by some spiritual mechanics, 
or by some abstract governmental arrangement, 
which carries no living power with it, but a vital 



THE BELIEVER S VICTORY. 233 



reality in the soul's conscious life. We know our 
espousals to God; faith celebrates the marriage, and 
we are in heaven, as it were, before the time. The 
consciousness is blessed ! It is not a rag-picker 
married to a millionnaire, and dwelling in his palace, 
enjoying his smile and confidence, bearing his name, 
sharing his wealth and his position, delighting in his 
love, and resting under his protection; but, more 
than that, a sinner who was all stained with guilt and 
shame, now redeemed and washed in atoning blood, 
and wedded to the King of heaven, dwelling in his 
glorious banqueting house, enjoying his smile, bear- 
ing his honored name and his seal, shielded by his 
arm, and chosen as the object of his tenderest affec- 
tion. 

By virtue of this union, we are one with Christ as 
he and the Father are one ; and the same glory which 
the Father gave him, he gives to us. Jesus becomes 
our ever-living Intercessor, our Prophet, and High- 
Priest, our Surety, our Passover, our Advocate ; and 
is "made of God unto us wisdom, righteousness, 
sanctification, and redemption." And when all this 
comes to be manifested to us by the Spirit, and we 
learn, by his teaching, that " all the fullness of the 
Godhead " dwells in Christ, that we may be w complete 
in him," of course there results to the soul a life and 
a blessedness which "passeth knowledge." 

Take, still again, the Father's wonderful love to 
the Son, on account of which he can and will bestow 
20* 



234 satan's devices and 



the richest of his blessings, without measure, upon 
Christ's trustful and loving followers. To know this 
by the Spirit is important in order to overcome the 
tendency to make our own worthiness our plea at the 
mercy-seat, and that we may apprehend the infinite 
weight there is in that argument, "for Christ's sake? 
which we urge in all our prayers. Let us, on this 
point, draw an illustration from a passage of 

Sacred History. 

The friendship of David and Jonathan was dis- 
interested and beautiful. Jonathan gave up his own 
claims to the throne, incurred the wrath of his father, 
and periled his own life, to secure to David, whom 
the Lord had appointed, the scepter of the kingdom. 
David did not forget this kindness of his friend. 
Soon after he was crowned, he gathered his court 
around him, and inquired thus: "Is there any that* 
is left of the house of Saul, that I may show him 
kindness for Jonathan's sake ? " The answer was 
equivocal. He was merely told that there was still 
living an old servant of Saul, by the name of Ziba. 
The king at once ordered Ziba to be brought before 
him. Fixing his eager eye upon him, David pressed 
the question upon the servant : w Is there not yet any 
of the house of Saul, that I may show the kindness 
of God unto him ?" Ziba, hesitatingly, stammered 
out the fact, that Jonathan himself had a son yet 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 235 

living, but he was lame in both his feet, unable to 
stand, and unworthy of the king's notice. David 
learned where he was, and immediately dispatched 
an officer to bring him. When he came into the 
royal presence, he fell on his face and did reverence. 
The king addressed him by his name, Mephibosheth, 
and said, "Fear not; for I will surely show thee 
kindness, for Jonathan thy father's sake." Mephibo- 
sheth bowed himself, and, as expressive of his sense 
of unworthiness, said, "What is thy servant, that 
thou shouldst look upon such a dead dog as I am ? " 
But David heeded not his words ; he had found his 
man, and was only thinking what expression he 
could give of his love to Jonathan by blessing his 
poor, worthless, crippled son. And what does he 
do? In the first place, he bestows upon him all the 
property and possessions which had belonged to the 
house of Saul ; and, not to encumber the poor man 
with the care of them, he appoints Ziba, and his family, 
and servants to manage the estates for Mephibosheth. 
And in the second place, he ordains that Mephibo- 
sheth himself shall dwell in Jerusalem, in the royal 
family, and sit with the king at his table, as one of 
the king's sons, as long as he lives (2 Sam. 9). 

Thus did David illustrate his love to Jonathan ; 
and the illustration is all the more forcible and sig- 
nificant by reason of the miserable condition of 
Mephibosheth. 

My argument here is this : If David, on account of 



236 satan's devices and 

his mere human and imperfect love to Jonathan, 
would bestow so great gifts upon poor, crippled 
Mephibosheth, as a testimony of that love, what may 
we not expect our Heavenly Father will do for us, 
the lame and worthless Mephibosheths, disciples of 
Jesus, on account of his infinite and perfect devotion 
to his well-beloved and only begotten Son ? There 
is no limit to what he will do. He will give us, not 
merely what pertained to Saul and his house, but all 
things. Mark his words: "All things are yours; 
whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, 
or life, or death, or things present, or things to come ; 
all are yours." "How shall he not with him freely 
give us all things?" And more than this, he adopts 
us into his famity, as the King's sons, joint-heirs 
with the First Born himself, that we may eat our 
meat at the royal table, at the King's right hand for- 
ever. Nor does he heed the fact, that we are more 
unworthy and worse wounded than was the son of 
Jonathan. 

Then, there was no special reason, outside of his 
mere love to Jonathan, why David should thus attest his 
affection for him. But there are grave reasons, aside 
from the impulse there is in love to manifest itself, 
why the Father should let the universe see his infi- 
nite appreciation of his Son. His enemies have 
denied his Deity, and maligned his character. They 
have treated him as an impostor, as a deceiver, even 
as a "prince of devils," and as wholly unworthy of 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY, 237 

the confidence and affection of his creatures. They 
have sought to alienate from his love and service, 
his children, redeemed by his blood, and to rob him 
of all his glory. When he was in the flesh, they 
hated him and cursed him ; and, that they might 
cover his name with eternal infamy, and root his 
memory out of the earth, they put him to the shame- 
ful death of the cross. And shall not the Almighty 
Father let those enemies and the whole universe see 
how he regards his Son? Can he fail to do any 
thing, in kind or degree, by which he can attest his 
love to Jesus, and exalt his name above all other 
names in earth or in heaven ? And surely there is no 
way in which he can so fitly and forcibly show his love 
to his Son, as by enriching with wealth incorruptible 
the poor, crippled disciples of that Son who are still 
struggling against his enemies and theirs on the 
earth. When it shall be seen that the Father, for 
Christ's sake, concentrates all blessing, for time and 
eternity, upon such poor Mephibosheths, setting them 
upon his throne, and making his own glory appear 
in them in its fullness, then hell will be confounded, 
and every knee — willingly or unwillingly — will 
bow, and every tongue confess that V Jesus Christ is 
Lord, to the glory of God the Father." 

The strength of God's moral government lies essen- 
tially in the character of Christ ; for that character is 
God's own, manifested as a power to mold his crea- 
tures into his own moral likeness. All the issues of 



238 satan's devices and 

that government over a universe of minds, therefore, 
stand out as reasons to the heart of God for exalting 
his only begotten Son. How certain it is, then, that, 
for reasons altogether independent of our worthiness, 
God will bestow upon us, as the disciples of Christ, 
all things in earth and heaven, the giving of which 
can testify his love toward his Son. 

It seems to the writer, that the knowledge of these 
things, by the Spirit, must be equivalent to a carte 
blanche — a letter of credit — allowing us to draw 
upon God, for Christ's sake, for whatever the true 
interests of the soul, in its inner and higher life, can, 
in any contingency, require. It brings to us the 
"fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ." 

Consider, again, the Spirit's assurance of this one 
principle and law of God's administration, that w all 
tilings shall work together for good to them that love 
God" To know this establishes one's feet upon solid 
rock; it gives a constant and universal victory to 
faith. Does your companion fall at your side? is the 
babe plucked from your arms ? has misfortune swept 
away all your estate ? You know all shall work for 
good, and can easily smile through your tears, and 
gratefully kiss the rod. Does Satan assault you with 
temptation to tear you away from Jesus ? You can 
coolly look him in the eye, and say, K Satan, I know 
you, and that you would destroy my soul. I have 
no strength of my own to contend successfully with 
you ; but the Holy Ghost has shown me, and I know 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 239 

that Jesus is my Deliverer, and that he will make all 
things work together for my good. The battle is not 
mine, but his (2 Chron. 20 : 15). If God will use 
your temptations as polishing stones wherewith to 
burnish my character, develop my faith, and give me 
a fuller knowledge of himself, the gain will be mine, 
not yours." Thus the disciple can sing the pean of 
victory even before the battle is fought. 

The Bible is full of principles and truths, the 
knowledge of which, by the Spirit, will, in like way, 
fortify the soul, and open fountains in the deserts 
and rivers in the dry places. In this way, all "the 
exceeding great and precious promises" become 
words of life and power. Like the distributing pipes 
for water and gas, in a great city, they carry the 
water and light of life into all the departments of our 
being. The promises are God's seals ; and when the 
Holy Spirit writes (Heb. 8 : 10) on the heart of the 
believer, * Into all places whithersoever thou goest, 
I will be with thee," he may travel round the world, 
and carry with him every where the consciousness of 
his Savior's presence. Let the Spirit say to the 
believer, — as once he said to a young man, who, 
with his heart full of light and love, and wondering 
whether Jesus would abide with him, opened his 
w Daily Food," and found this promise recorded for 
the day, — "Unto your old age I am he ; and even 
to hoar hairs will I carry you : I have made and I 
will bear ; even I will carry and will deliver you " 



240 Satan's devices and 

(Is. 46 : 4) ; or this, "I will never, no, never leave 
thee, nor forsake thee," and he will have no occasion 
to go to Calvin to learn the doctrine of the saints' 
perseverance ; he knows it from above. He is sealed, 
and no man shall pluck him from his Father's hand. 
The blessedness, which the spiritual knowledge of 
these and other things innumerable gives to the soul, 
is rich beyond the power of human language or 
imagery to describe. The Celestial City of Bunyan, 
the New Jerusalem of John, with all its gorgeous and 
golden streets, its pearly gates and precious stones, 
its ciystal waters and trees of life, is but a shadowy 
representation, after all, of the reality. It is as good 
as material things can give ; but still the fact remains, 
that " eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor have 
entered into the heart of man, the things which God 
hath prepared for them that love him." 

President Edwards has a beautiful description of 
the soul enjoying these divine illuminations. It is 
"like a field or garden of God, with all manner of 
pleasant flowers, enjoying a sweet calm, and the 
gentle, vivifying beams of the sun — like such a 
little flower as we see in the spring of the year, low 
and humble on the ground, opening its bosom to 
receive the pleasant beams of the sun's glory ; rejoi- 
cing, as it were, in a calm rapture ; diffusing around a 
sweet fragrancy ; standing peacefully and lovingly in 
the midst of other flowers round about, all, in like 
manner, opening their bosoms to drink in the light 
of the sun." 



THE BELIEVERS VICTORY. 241 



Section VHI. 

Tlie Law of Progress in this Divine, Saving Knowl- 
edge; with « Sketch illustrating the Spirit's Meth- 
od. — The "Higher Christian Life " explained. 

Xothing is more certain than that we gain spiritual 
knowledge, as we clo all other, by degrees. Many 
lessons occupy the mind a long time, before we fully 
know them. The Spirit hints at things and puts the 
mind on inquiry ; and the hungry heart searches for the 
truth as for hid treasures, and is blessed in searching. 
Sometimes the Spirit will make knowledge break 
in suddenly upon the mind, as the traveler, arrived 
at some mountain top, is in an instant ravished with 
a new and wonderful panorama ; at others, he causes 
it to dawn after the manner of the sun's rising, dimly 
at first, but with increasing power and glory till it 
reaches the meridian. 

Our advancement in the divine life will be, on the 
whole, as our advancement in the spiritual apprehen- 
sion of God and divine things. This may be taken as 
the law of spiritual progress. 

It makes a man a Christian to know Christ as for- 
giving him his sins, and giving him hope of heaven 
through his blood. In his conversion, a sinner sees 
his lost condition, and casts himself trustingly and 
unreservedly upon Christ as his Savior. He runs 
well for a season, glad that he is hopefully in the 
21 



242 satan's devices axd 

kingdom of God, that Christ will be his Advocate at 
the judgment, and receive him at last to dwell at his 
own right hand. 

But the young convert soon finds that he has need 
of something more. The world overcomes him. His 
passions are not effectually crucified. Pride lifts its 
head. Mammon finds place in his heart. Foes 
assail him from without and from within, and he 
seems to himself to be in the mouth of the lion, or in 
the paws of the bear. Darkness comes over him, 
difficulties lie in his path, and, in his fear, he is per- 
chance almost ready to blame his Moses for leading 
him forth from his house of bondage. Like the 
Israelites of old, he is " discouraged by reason of the 
way." Many yield to temptation here, and never 
come to the table of the Lord. They do not, how- 
ever, forget their hope of pardon, but, in their 
trouble, flee to it as their city of refuge. Others, 
more resolute, make profession of religion, but they 
make little progress, and are unsatisfied. 

Now, the difficulty is, that these beginners in the 
school of Christ have only taken their first lesson. 
It is a new lesson they require. They do not yet 
know that Christ is with them now, ever present to 
deliver them from their enemies without and their 
fears within, and to give them grace to serve him f? in 
holiness and righteousness all the daj T s of their life " 
(Luke 2 : 68-80) . They are in the condition of the 
disciples between the betrayal of Christ and the bap- 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 243 

tism of the Holy Ghost, when they all forsook him 
and fled. They are often sad and disappointed as 
they journey to Emmaus, wondering at all the things 
which have happened in their experience, and not 
knowing that the Master, by his Spirit, is talking 
with them by the way. Some, perhaps, recalling cer- 
tain words of Christ, and hastening to the sepulcher, 
find he is risen, and tell the story of their new joy to 
others. But their words seem to these as idle tales. 
They are bewildered, and know not what to do. 
Thomas will not believe till he can put his finger into 
the prints of the nails, and his hand into the Savior's 
side. But the Lord is risen indeed, and begins at 
length to " open their understandings, that they may 
understand the Scriptures." Light dawns ; the dis- 
pensation of the Spirit is at hand ; the disciples are 
now tarrying in Jerusalem in an upper room, waiting 
for the promise of the Father. 

This brings us to the second stage of spiritual 
knowledge. Thanks be to God, the Spirit comes 
and imparts to them the knowledge of Jesus as a pres- 
ent and Almighty Savior. The scales drop from their 
eyes ; they see Jesus present with them ; they know 
that he is God, and that all saving power on earth 
and in heaven is given him in their behalf. They 
see him now with the eye of faith as the eye of sense 
could not see him when in the body. He will no 
more appear and disappear, as he did in his flesh, but 
abide with them forever. The crucifixion and the 



244 SATAN'S DEVICES AND 

grave have not taken him from them, as they had 
supposed, but have only brought him nearer, and dis- 
closed him to them in all his divine fullness and 
power. They speak with tongues of fire, for they 
but utter the thoughts of the indwelling Spirit. Now, 
too, they are strong, and enriched with abounding 
grace. Peter, who quailed before a Jewish maiden, 
now fears not the Sanhedrim, and would indeed die 
sooner than deny his Master. 

What is termed the "Higher Christian Life" is 
reached. The Lord Jesus, the Mighty God, the 
Savior, is made known by the Spirit as ever present 
with the disciples as their life and their strength, 
their salvation and their Deliverer ; and why should 
they longer fear what man can do unto them? 

But this is only another stage in divine knowledge. 
The soul is yet exposed to temptation, as was Jesus 
himself, and must learn how to appropriate the new 
salvation so as to gain the victory ; or, in other words, 
the soul must come to know God in his methods of 
saving us from the power of our enemies. For ex- 
ample, suppose a man to be assaulted with impure 
and lustful thoughts, which, if indulged, would lead 
to sin. They would be exceedingly disgusting and 
hateful to his renewed sensibility. He would resist 
them, but could not exorcise them; they would not 
go at his bidding. He knows that Jesus is with him 
to save. Let the tempted disciple go to him for a 
specific victory. He will give it. But how? He 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY., 245 

will bestow his own knowledge of the subject on his 
disciple ; he will give him his idea in making the 
race male and female, and it shall take out of his 
mind all that which ever made him " look on a woman 
to lust after her," and give him that purity of heart 
in which "all things are" seen to be "pure." The 
deliverance will be glorious ; and this specific cleans- 
ing of his sensibility by divine knowledge will in- 
tensify his love of his Redeemer, and enlarge his 
capacity for usefulness in his service. 

In like way, suppose the mind to be tempted to 
pride. The remedy is not in any strength of our 
own, gained by a general sense of the Savior's pres- 
ence with us, to overcome it. We need to know our 
infinite Redeemer specifically with reference to the 
temptation to be proud. Let him give us his idea of 
pride and humility ; let him reveal himself to us in 
the act of washing the disciples' feet, in the process 
of making himself of no reputation, of humbling him- 
self from King of kings and Lord of lords to servant 
of servants ; let him give us the knowledge of God as 
serving his enemies, at the sacrifice of his own life on 
the cross — and the work is done. We shall see pride 
as never before, and our hearts will gravitate toward 
lowliness — " all lowliness." 

If the Lord would show us our weakness, and 

make us feel our ignorance, and that we are less than 

the least of all things, he has but to manifest himself 

to the willing and waiting heart in his omnipotence 

21* 



246 satan's devices and 

and in his omniscience : the contrast must bring us 
speedily to the dust. If he would reconcile us to the 
deepest poverty, he can accomplish it by showing us 
himself, emptied of all riches that he might make 
them abound to others. If he would strengthen us 
to love our enemies and bless those that curse us, he 
need only unfold the glory there is, to his view, in 
doing it. 

Is any real disciple troubled lest his unworthiness 
should, after all, exclude him from heaven, — let the 
Holy Spirit reveal to him the righteousness of Christ 
wherein he stands, and he shall know that his accept- 
ance by the Father, for Christ's sake, will be as per- 
fect as if he were the chief of the apostles. 

In what words can be described the soul's holy rap- 
ture, when God makes himself known to it in his 
infinite love ? or its profound awe and self-abasement, 
when Jehovah unvails himself in his infinite holiness 
and justice? or its quiet and grateful submission, 
when he appears in all his infinite patience? or its 
abhorrence of sin and unbelief, when God discloses 
his idea of their heinousness? or its love for souls, 
Avhen God testifies to it of their value, and reveals 
the boundlessness of his own compassion for them ? 

There is no end, of course, to the unfoldings which 
God may make to his redeemed of the glorious 
riches of his character ; of the infinitude of his 
natural attributes ; of the wealth and royal conde- 
scension of his love ; of the holy tenderness of his 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 247 

patience ; of the awful firmness of his justice ; of the 
richness and freeness of his mercy ; of all the waste- 
less treasures of his grace ; of the incomprehensible 
minuteness, as well as vastness, of his works ; and of 
the sublimity and grandeur of all his purposes and 
of his government. But these unfoldings will go 
on as the rolling ages pass away, and we shall be 
transfigured by them, and be wrought into a more 
and more enlarged and perfect unity with the Lord 
our God forever. We add 



A Sketch, illustrating the /Spirit's Method of bringing 
the Soul to the Knowledge of God. 

A young man was hopefully converted to Christ 
while engaged in business in Western New York. 
Pressed in his conscience with the duty of preaching 
the gospel, he excused himself in one way and 
another, till he was married and settled in life. Then 
it seemed safe, in urging other young men to go, to 
say, "I would go without hesitation but for my 
family and my business." He committed himself over 
and over again in this way, in circumstances where 
the Holy Ghost was, to him, a conscious witness of 
his word. The Lord had thus taken him unawares, 
for it was but a short work for God to call the young 
wife to himself, and open a door out of the house 
of merchandise. There was no longer any escape 
from the call of duty but to rebel against God, and 



248 satan's devices and 

become a liar to the Holy Ghost. He went. While 
reading Virgil, and Horace, and Xenophon, he read 
also James Brainard Taylor. It was clear that that man 
had received an anointing from God which he needed, 
above all learning, to qualify him to preach the gos- 
pel. Could he have it? He believed he could, and 
set his heart upon it. He began to inquire at the 
mercy-seat for the way. The Spirit seemed to 
answer thus : w First, run your eye back over your 
past life, and find what has been wrong, and set it 
right — confess — restore." This work was under- 
taken. Things then assumed a peculiar look. An 
umbrella taken carelessly, in place of one's own, was 
stolen. Breaking a just law was wronging every 
citizen of the nation ; and no matter that it was 
fashionable, and that others did it, and even the 
officers of the law winked at it. Injustice in the 
least was injustice in much. ff Trifling sins " were no 
longer trifles. When this work was done, one step 
toward the blessing seemed taken. "What next, 
Lord ? " was now the inquiry. Here the answer 
came, "Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not 
all that he hath can not be my disciple." And must 
all — friends, property, life — be laid upon the altar 
and given up to God in such a sense as to transfer the 
ownership, and leave the disciple, henceforth, a sim- 
ple and conscious steward of God, to use his life, and 
whatever he should possess, for his glory? This was 
reasonable, and ought to be done. The student 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 249 

paused to weigh the matter. Could he do it? It 
was a serious question. To blot out the /, and give its 
place to Christ, in the whole life, was a very compre- 
hensive act. No more to live, but to let Christ live 
in him, was the great requirement. To say it, was 
not enough. The 2, the dear ego, must be nailed to 
the cross. The student struggled with himself in 
this counting of the cost of building his tower. He 
had given up his business and a good prospect of 
wealth, to become a minister. And must he now go 
deeper, and give up his very life and identity, as it 
were, to Christ, in order to obtain the anointing, 
without which his ministry would be barren and irk- 
some ? At length he felt himself ready for the great 
sacrifice. He bowed at the mercy-seat, and, deliber- 
ately and formally, made the consecration. It was a 
pleasant hour. For a little, it seemed as if the work 
had been effectually done. But ere long, some test 
from the Spirit revealed the fact that the / still occu- 
pied the place which had been in words, even hon- 
estly used, offered to Christ. The whole ground was 
gone over again, more solemnly and carefully, — yes, 
again and again, — with the same failure for a result. 
The act of consecration did not hold. The young 
man was distressed and perplexed with his failure, 
and knew not what to do. He carried the case to 
the great Teacher. The Spirit came to his relief, and 
showed him that he was attempting, by this effort at 
consecration in his own strength, to cast down the /, 



250 satan's devices and 

that Christ might come and take the throne in its 
stead. The reigning sovereign did not succeed in 
deposing himself. The eye of faith as yet but recog- 
nized Christ in the distance, ready, indeed, to come 
in when the / was driven out; but this dethronement, 
without the power of Christ, was impossible. This 
gulf between the soul and the Savior in the distance, 
must be bridged, or there could be no relief. Now, 
the Spirit opened up the fact that the Deliverer was 
not waiting in the distance, but was near, even now 
in the believer's heart, and that nothing remained but 
by faith to drop into his outstretched arms, and leave 
him to take the offered throne, and, by his power, 
dethrone the usurper. The difficulty was removed. 
The disciple responded, "Yea, thou present Almighty 
One, talce the throne, and do thy pleasure." The 
thing was done. The consecration held, as it did 
not before, and there was a sweet assurance of ac- 
ceptance. Another great step was evidently taken : 
the soul was in a blessed place, but yet something 
more was wanting. There were quietness and peace, 
but there was unsatisfied hunger. The Spirit's in- 
struction now was, "Wait on the Lord; " "Look to 
Jesus." The young man waited, O, how eagerly ! — 
even as the eleven in that upper room at Jerusalem. 
Ere long, the Holy Spirit took away the vail, and he 
found himself in the living presence of God, his 
Savior. He saw and was in the glory of God. He 
seemed in a new world, with new heavens and a new 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 251 

earth. The Lamb was the light thereof. The 
immediate presence of Jesus was not less real than 
if he had been visible to the outward eye. He had 
come and manifested himself according to his prom- 
ise ; and, in the heart of that disciple, there were 
exceeding great joy and fullness of glory. He had 
not seen, nor heard, nor conceived before, what God 
had provided for them that love him. His soul was 
full, satisfied, and could ask no more. That for 
which he had hungered long was more than realized. 
This same glory which was in the believer's heart 
shone upon the pages of revelation, and showed every 
promise instinct with the very life and power of God 
to his soul. The Book became a living book; its 
words, living and life-giving words. It shone 
equally on the world without, so that it was seen to 
be indeed " full of the glory of God." Christ was all 
and in all, and all was well. 

To the subsequent experience of this individual, we 
shall refer again in our closing chapter, in which the 
great fight with and victory over Satan will be drawn 
out. 

Section IX. 

What may we reasonably hope to attain in this Life, 
in Respect to the State, (1.) Of the Will; (2.) 
Of the Intellect; (3.) Of the Sensibility; — or in 
the Matter of Purpose, Knowledge, and Emotion? 

In view of the method of salvation here defined, 



252 Satan's devices and 

what may we reasonably hope to attain while we 
remain in the flesh ? 

Perhaps no fixed rule of attainments can be given. 
God may, for special and sovereign reasons, so reveal 
himself to a Paul, a Luther, or an Edwards, as to 
secure attainments in them entirely beyond the ex- 
perience of the mass of Christians. Then, the prog- 
ress of individuals may depend very much upon 
themselves. The earnest pupils of the Spirit will, 
naturally and surely, distance the more indifferent 
ones. 

Certainly, no one may hope to reach a state where 
he can stand by his own powers, where he may cease 
to depend entirely and alone on Christ, or where 
there will be no further growth in grace. Certainly, 
no one may hope, in this life, to attain a state where 
there will be no more exposure to temptation. Christ 
was exposed to it to the last, and died in the midst 
of it. 

But we may hope, as to the Will, that, through 
this divine knowledge of Christ, it will become so 
devoted to him that it will cease, knowingly, to 
swerve from its fidelity. It may so far overcome 
temptation as to remain inflexible up to the point of 
saying, in its Gethsemane of trial, "Nevertheless, 
not my will, but thine be done," or of dying a shame- 
ful death, crying, " Mot, dot, lama sabackthani" 
The will often becomes inflexible in its devotion to 
earthly friends; why not to the infinite, heavenly 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 253 

Friend ? Why should not the martyr spirit be com- 
mon to Christians ? With the presence of the Deliv- 
erer realized ; with the promise of victory over temp- 
tation sealed to the soul ; with the terrible criminality 
of transgression seen in the light of God's revealed 
holiness ; with the lesson learned from the Spirit that 
to believe is to conquer; with the consciousness that 
fidelity of will to God is not only "the greatest 
apparent good," but that, without such fidelity, there 
is no other possible good ; with the lies and disguises 
of Satan exposed, — why should not the will stand 
inflexibly true to God, ever turning to him as the 
needle to the pole? Why not be habitually fixed, 
* unmovable, always abounding in the work of the 
Lord " ? A brother recently illustrated his views to 
me on this question by stating how his own mind 
worked in a given case. He had an only daughter, 
who was his life, so far as a child can be the life of a 
parent. She sickened, and trembled between two 
worlds. The Savior seemed to say to him, "Shall I 
spare your child ? Will you retain her, or suffer her 
to come unto me ? " His heart replied, " Thou 
knowest, Lord, how my life is in the child ; yet I can 
not say, e Restore her,' for I can not have my will 
done. Not as I will, but as thou wilt." And this 
was the habitual way in which his will acted. So it 
should be with all Christians ; so it may be, and so 
we trust it often is. 

As to the Intellect, we may surely hope to attain a 
22 



254 satan's devices and 

knowledge of the will of God concerning us, so as to 
be able, intelligently, to perform it. Our character 
lies in the end w T hich we choose and for w^hich we 
live, and the law of God reveals, and Christ's life 
illustrates, what this end should be ; and, doubtless, 
the Holy Ghost will so bring this home to our appre- 
hension, that we can become, and remain, consciously 
devoted to it, and that we may know our specific acts 
to be in harmony w T ith it and executive of it. 

It does not seem clear that we are to expect or 
wait for a special revelation of the will of God in 
respect to each one of our specific acts. If our end 
is right, our sjririt, Christ-like, God may naturally 
leave us to learn, by the powers he has given us, what 
our particular acts ought to be. Indeed, he may be 
indifferent which of several courses we take to accom- 
plish a benevolent end, and his blessing may equally 
follow upon either of several feasible methods. This 
is the way we deal with our children. Having pre- 
pared them by careful instruction, and secured an 
obedient spirit, we give them their choice in modes 
of action, we throw them upon their individual re- 
sources, and prefer to have them exercise their own 
powers, that they may gain confidence, discipline, 
and strength. We do not cramp their faculties by 
forbidding them to take a step till we shall have 
given them specific directions how and where to step. 
We encourage them to act on their own judgment. 
If there be occasion, w T e direct them specifically; and 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 255 

where they lack wisdom, we give it to them. Is it 
not so between God and his children ? He has given 
us reason and his word to guide us. If we lack wis- 
dom, he promises to give liberally. And, certainly, 
he would have us learn so to use the faculties with 
which he has endowed us as to gain character and 
strength as independent moral beings. Is there not, 
then, a margin for the exercise of our own powers? 
and may not the true disciple hear his Father saying, 
"My child, your aim is right — my love constrains 
you. Now use your best judgment with the. light 
you have ; throw yourself upon your powers made in 
my likeness, and act as seems to you best, and I 
shall be equally well pleased whichever of the several 
possible ways you take. You will gain strength by 
the use of your faculties, and suffer loss by their dis- 
use. If you make a mistake, be not troubled. But 
learn wisdom. Ask for light when you need it, and 
it shall not be withheld. Be a man. Fear not. Keep 
your heart in my love, and all shall be well." 

Different disciples, with the same end in view, con- 
strained by the same love, do, we know, choose differ- 
ent methods of working, according to their varying 
temperaments and capacities of judging. 

The theory here stated, therefore, seems more con- 
sistent with the Bible, with reason, and with facts, 
than the theory of the author of M Millennial Experi- 
ence," who seems to teach that we are to be guided 
in each specific act of life — even the smallest — by 



256 Satan's devices axd 

a direct revelation, to the mind, of the will of 
God. 

An illustration of the principle above stated, that 
God is pleased with our independent use of our capa- 
bilities, occurs to mind. An intelligent young man 
found himself pressed to the performance of an im- 
portant duty. But there were two ways of doing it, 
and he had long halted between them. Some insist 
that there is only one way ; others, that either of 
two or three will answer as well before God. He 
had determined to settle the question of hoiv, and act. 
He read the books on either side ; and the more he 
read, the more confused he became, till he despaired, 
"by searching," of being able to decide. He came to 
me for advice. I asked, "Are you willing to take 
either course? Is your own will submissive, so that, 
the moment the path is opened, you will enter it?" 
He believed it was. "Go, then," I said, "and so 
report to your Savior, and ask for orders." He 
went, and almost immediately received this answer : 
" Take which course you please ; your Heavenly 
Father does not care which." The answer was as 
clear as his clearest religious experience, and his 
trouble was all over. He acted upon his own good 
sense, and had abundant reason to be satisfied with 
the course he had taken. 

But much more, as to the Intellect, may be attained, 
than the mere knowledge of God's will concern- 
ing us. As shown in previous sections, we may 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 257 

know God himself. We may have his thoughts, his 
ideas, his views filling and perfectly satisfying the 
intelligence. The knowledge of God, setting, as it 
does, all other knowledge in its proper adjustments, 
is the highest and best the universe affords. Many, 
alas, are slow in coming to this knowledge ; many 
things have to be learned through severe processes 
of discipline ; yet, if a man will search for it as for 
hid treasures, his intellect shall become as the gar- 
den of the Lord, full of all delights, and redolent 
of the aroma of heaven. 

As to the Sensibility, we may well hope to gain 
that "peace of God which passeth all understanding." 
The lowest degree of attainment should bring us an 
experience so satisfying, in kind, that we shall only 
be hungry for more of that which gives us present 
blessedness. This holy and happy satisfaction may 
become so deep that surface agitation will in no wise 
destroy our peace. It is quite possible to enjoy 
trials, to glory in tribulation, to take pleasure in 
suffering for the name of the Lord Jesus. When the 
Holy Spirit exhibits to the soul the fullness of its 
inheritance, its blessedness, like the love of God, 
"passeth knowledge," and the forms of language are 
insufficient to crystallize it into expression. Admit- 
ting the fact of more or less irritation of the sen- 
sibility by the pressure of temptation and wrong, 
especially in natures constructed of over-sensitive 
or inflexible materials, yet the earnest Christian may 
22* 



258 SATAN'S DEVICES AND 

hope to attain to a deep under-current of ever- 
increasing blessedness, beautifully illustrated bj 
Ezekiel (47 : 1-12). The stream is small at first, as 
it issues from under the temple, and flows around by 
the altar ; but it passes on a thousand cubits, and the 
water is up to the ankles ; another thousand, and it 
is up to the knees ; another thousand, and the waters 
are up to the loins ; another thousand, and the river 
is deep and broad, and can not be crossed. This river 
carried life in its waters, even to the "healing of the 
sea," whither it flowed, and to all things therein. Of 
this stream, David speaks (Ps. 46) : "There is a 
river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of 
God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most 
High." The same stream waters the Xew Jerusalem. 
On its borders, it is appointed unto the Israel of 
God to dwell, amid living trees perfecting their rich 
clusters continually, and scattering their leaves for 
the healing of the nations. 

When we consider that our Lord may take his 
trustful disciple up into his own moral atmosphere, 
where the "light is dry and pure," and, from his own 
point of observation, give him to see in that light of 
which the sun is but a dim shadow ; that he may turn 
all his works, as seen through microscope and tele- 
scope, and all the sciences with their wonderful 
revealings, into a vast system of reflectors, symbols, 
and illustrations, interpreting himself to us ; that, in 
each event of pur individual experience and history, 






THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 259 

and in all the unfoldings of his providence, and in the 
startling changes in the history of the nations, he 
may distinctly show ns his own hand, working out 
the good pleasure of his will in the redemption of 
his church, — we iftay indeed conclude that no limit 
can be set to what our God may do for us, even while 
we remain in the flesh. 

Section X. 

The Relation of Faith to the Obtaining of this 
Saving Knowledge of God. 

* 
We have, in a former chapter, given a brief analy- 
sis of saving faith. In such faith, it appears that the 
will grasps and enthrones the object of faith, namely, 
God and his truth, as far as apprehended by the intel- 
ligence, and makes it the law of life. In a dead faith, 
on the other hand, while God and the truth are more 
or less clearly revealed to the knowing power, the 
will refuses to fall in with that truth and enthrone it 
as the mind's law. 

Faith, then, is the grand indispensable condition 
of our salvation, at every step of its progress. To 
believe, in the true sense, is to open the door to 
Christ, and to welcome all saving influences to prac- 
tical supremacy in the soul. It connects the branch 
with the living vine, and admits God, and the whole 
power of the gospel, into vital and working contact 
with the soul. It is the link which couples the car to 



260 satan's devices and 

the engine — the soul to God. It opens the valve 
for the steam to enter and act upon the mental and 
moral machinery. Not to believe, in the sense de- 
fined, is really to reject the gospel, to resist the Holy 
Ghost, and make the truth of God of none effect. It 
excludes all redeeming agencies from the mind, and 
practically abandons the soul to the ruin which sin 
involves. It forecloses the intellect, pre-occupies the 
sensibility, perverts the will, and resigns the throne 
to the adversary. 

Great care must be taken not to substitute un- 
truths, our fancies, speculations, or theories, in the 
place of the truth which alone is the power of God 
unto salvation. We have shown, in Chapter VI., the 
importance of the right adjustment of the will; and 
it is nowhere more essential than in our faith. Not 
unfrequcntly, the mistake is made of accepting some 
vivid conception or picture of a religious " experience " 
as the object of faith. When this is done, all the 
powers of the mind are put upon the stretch to realize 
such an experience. But the effort fails, of course. 
This ff picture n takes the place before the mind which 
belongs to God and his word. No man may take the 
exercises of another, and expect the Spirit to lead him 
in the same precise way. The Infinite One is origi- 
nal in all his working. We must submit our ideals to 
him, and welcome his hand to mold our clay as 
seemeth him good. Our faith must not stand either 
in the wisdom or the experience of men, but in the 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 261 

promises and power of God. If we would have 
light, we should look at the sun itself, not merely at 
some object on which it has shone. 

Section XI. 

The Duty of Living in the Victorious Enjoyment of 
this Life-sustaining Knowledge of God. 

Duty is a sacred word. It is what we oive — what 
is due from us to ourselves or others. 

"The wish, the dream, the wild desire, to know" 
is not only the highest, but the truest impulse of 
man's intellectual being. It is duty as well as privi- 
lege. The knowledge of God, crowning and setting 
all other knowledge in its true relations, ought, of 
course, to be the chief object of pursuit. On its 
acquisition, all our true interests — our success or 
failure as moral beings — depend. 

We owe it to our Savior to attain to that full 
knowledge of him which will insure us a triumphant 
and habitual victory over " the world, the flesh, and 
the devil." The most intimate fellowship with valued 
friends is the spontaneous bidding of affection. Jesus 
Christ is our infinite Friend. No other has loved us 
with a love like his. When there was no eye to pity 
and no arm to save, he said unto us, "Live." We 
know all the story of his sufferings in our behalf, and 
how he gives himself to us as Mediator, Intercessor, 
Advocate, Bridegroom, and in all loving offices. 



262 satan's devices and 

Surely that wondrous benevolence by which he not 
only supplies the want of every living thing, but 
gives himself to the death of the cross, that so he 
may lift the whole race up into the sphere of his own 
blessedness, with special manifestations of sympathy 
for the poor and needy, throws upon all men, but 
especially upon his children, an immeasurable obliga- 
tion to catch the spirit of the apostle, and know 
nothing but Christ and him crucified ; to suffer the 
loss of all things, that they may attain the fullness of 
that knowledge, and be forever "complete in Him" 
who is " over all, God blessed forever." 

If we seek not to know Christ as our ever- 
present and almighty Deliverer, we shall inevitably 
abuse and dishonor him at every step. Our experi- 
ence will correspond with that of the disciples before 
the day of Pentecost. Like Peter, we shall deny 
him; like Thomas, distrust him; like them all, we 
shall forsake him, and sink under the pressure of 
temptation. The "power of the resurrection" we 
can not know, and our Redeemer will practically be 
to us, as he was for a little time to the disciples, as 
one dead in the hands of his enemies. Even our past 
experience will lose its significance, and we shall be 
as much bewildered as were the two whom Jesus met 
on their way to Emmaus. If we do not so know 
him, all our Christian graces will be dwarfed. Our 
love, our faith, our joy can rise no higher than our 
apprehension of him. We can not enter fully into 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 263 

sympathy with him in that work which thrills every 
holy heart in glory ; we can not truly represent his 
spirit or his will to the world ; our light will be but 
darkness. If we do not go on so to know him, we 
shall fail of the work and fruits of the Spirit ; for he 
accomplishes his mission by the manifestation of the 
knowledge of God. 

We owe it to the church of Christ to be full of this 
victorious knowledge. His church suffers, — "the 
boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild 
beast of the field doth devour it" (Ps. 80: 13),— 
and, by reflecting upon her the light of such spiritual 
attainment, we can do much to w make her wilderness 
like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the 
Lord." 

■We owe it as well to a lost world. Sinners are 
perishing. We can successfully point them, by such 
knowledge, to the "Lamb of God who taketh away 
the sin of the world." 

We owe it not less to ourselves. Only by so 
doing can we fulfill the mission God has given us. 
Why should we suffer unbelief and selfishness to 
reign over us, and mar the image of God in our 
natures, when deliverance is possible? Why be the 
bond slaves of Satan, since Jesus has purchased and 
proclaimed liberty ? 



264 SATAN'S DEVICES AND 



Section XII. 

The Guilt of being without this Knowledge and its 
Saving Power. 

Many will think themselves sorry that they have 
not this saving knowledge, and be ready, perhaps, to 
find fault with God that he has withheld it from 
them, so that they have seemed unable to perform 
the duty already urged. But, alas ! their ignorance 
is their sin. 

According to the apostle (Rom. 1 : 28), God gives 
men up to sin and darkness only because they are 
''unwilling to retain him in their knowledge." God 
surely has done his utmost to persuade men to come 
and take freely the life-giving waters. The condi- 
tions are easy. "If any man will do his will, he 
shall know of the doctrine." If men will search for 
it as for earthly treasure, they n shall find the knowl- 
edge of God." 

What has not God done to make himself known to 
the world? Before our first parents had left the 
garden, he began to reveal himself in mercy. All 
along the track of history, he has erected monuments 
to indicate his character to his creatures. What a 
testimony to his hatred of sin was the deluge ! In all 
his dealings with the Jewish nation, God was work- 
ing out, for the instruction of all generations, his 
views of sin and holiness. He has spoken his will 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 265 

by holy men, and given their utterances miraculous 
confirmation. 

•In due time came the Incarnation — God mani- 
fest in the flesh. This coming of the Messiah in a 
human form, addressing himself to all our senses, 
putting himself into our conditions that he might give 
the fullest expression to the loving heart of God 
toward us, by voice, by act, by visible sympathy, 
was the highest possible manifestation he could 
make of himself in the world of sense. It brought 
the knowledge of God to the level of the lowest 
man. 

Then, the story of the Messiah, with all his reveal- 
ings, was put on record, and carefully preserved, and 
handed down from generation to generation, that all 
might know and live. 

Then, as the culmination of effort on God's part, to 
make himself savingly known, he sends his Holy 
Spirit upon the one great mission of seizing upon all 
the unfoldings of the divine character from Eden 
to Calvary, and of presenting them before men in 
such a way that, seeing them, they should be con- 
strained to believe and become partakers of his 
moral life. 

The Spirit is sent on this mission to every man ; 
and God testifies that he is more willing to be- 
stow the Spirit upon all who are willing to receive 
it, than earthly parents are to give good gifts to their 
children. 

23 



266 satan's devices and 

His great, crowning, and most glorious promise to 
his people is, that he will send them the Holy Spirit 
to dwell permanently with them in the world, to be 
their Comforter, Teacher, and Sanctifier. He shall 
take of the things of Jesus and show them to them ; 
he shall bring all things to their remembrance; he 
shall sanctify and seal them through the truth unto 
their becoming partakers of the divine nature, and 
overcoming the corruption that is in the world 
through lust. 

Nothing remains, therefore, for the disciples of 
Christ, but to believe and receive this saving, trium- 
phant knowledge of God. Docs it not even appear 
that, if we fail, it must be because of unbelief and of 
resistance to the Holy Ghost himself? 

May I not, in concluding the presentation of this 
topic, urge my readers, and especially those who 
have "the beginning of confidence," to drop all 
excuses and misgivings, and come boldly to Jesus 
for this higher knowledge of himself? He w hangs 
out the white flag ; " he presents the w golden scep- 
ter " to all who would approach him. If the soul is 
poor, he has gold to enrich it; if wounded and sick, 
balm to heal it. The feast is ready ; the door is 
open. Come with a will ; wrench the soul from all 
the falsehoods of Satan, and accept of Jesus as All. 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 267 



Section XIII. 

The General View here presented, confirmed by its 
Power to harmonize the apparently Conflicting 
Views of the Different /Schools of ^Evangelical 
Christians, and to simplify certain Vexed Ques- 
tions in Theology. 

If one were putting together a dissected map, and 
found the part in hand exactly fitted to all the sur- 
rounding parts, so that the lines and words on the 
face perfectly corresponded, he would be sure he 
was, so far, right. On the same principle, if the 
doctrines of this book, and especially of this chapter, 
should be found to match in with the great surround- 
ing truths of the Bible, that would go far to establish 
their truth. If they should prove to be a key, by 
which a beautiful and substantial harmony should be 
disclosed between what seem to be conflicting views 
of different denominations of Evangelical Christians, 
this would further tend to confirm them, and make 
their presentation alike agreeable and profitable to 
all such Christians. 

We wish modestly to suggest, whether, in several 
respects, they may not be regarded as such a key. 

In the discussion of the question of entire sanctifi- 
cation in this life, one class of Christians has insisted, 
and another denied, that the Bible taught that doc- 
trine. Each supports its view from the Scriptures. 



268 satan's devices and 

Now, where does the truth lie? or is it true, as 
cavilers say, that you can prove or disprove any thing 
from the Word of God ? 

The Bible plainly recognizes those who are in 
Christ as being, in some sense, "holy," "clean," 
" obedient." Our Lord, in speaking of his disciples 
before his death, says, "Now ye are clean through 
the word which I have spoken unto you." And 
again, he saj^s to the Father, "I have given unto 
them the words which thou gavest me, and they have 
received them, and have kept tltem" Paul, in his 
third chapter to the Philippians, recognizes Chris- 
tians as both perfect and imperfect. He urges " as 
many as be perfect " to press on to a perfection which 
he was striving to reach, but had not yet attained. 
He appeals to the Thessalonians, ten years before, 
that they, and God also, knew how "holily, and 
justly, and unblamably " he had deported himself 
among them ; and yet he frequently represents him- 
self as the weakest and most unworthy of all, and as 
struggling against temptation, and as laboring to 
attain a yet higher spiritual position. 

At the time Christ declared his disciples to be 
clean and obedient to the word, they were, neverthe- 
less, so weak, and, in some sense, so imperfect, that 
in "that hour" of trial which was just before them, 
they all forsook the Master and fled, — Peter deny- 
ing him with oaths and curses. 

Now, according to the view we have taken, these 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 269 

disciples had some knowledge of God by the Spirit 
— enough to make them accepted followers of Christ. 
To this knowledge they were obedient, and, in this 
sense, clean. At the same time, they were ignorant 
of the things, the knowledge of which by the Spirit, 
would have saved them from falling. Had they 
known, then, what was revealed to them on the day 
of Pentecost, and what it was, perhaps, impossible 
for them so to know sooner, it is morally certain they 
would not have fallen. They would have been as 
unshaken in that most fearful crisis of human trial, 
as they were subsequently, when filled with the Holy 
Ghost. But while the Shepherd was smitten, the 
sheep would almost unavoidably, and for the mo- 
ment, be scattered. The remedy which alone would 
have kept them, was to be developed out of this very 
smiting of the Shepherd. 

The sense in which the disciples were holy and 
clean before the day of Pentecost, is obvious. They 
walked according to all the light which had really 
penetrated their consciousness at the time. Being 
in Christ, his righteousness was theirs. Their sin 
was all pardoned, and no condemnation from heaven 
rested upon them. If virtue is an intelligible thing ; 
if it consists in a whole-hearted, voluntary obedience 
to the known will of God ; and if the knowledge of 
God is only attainable by degrees, — then holiness is a 
thing of degrees, and the disciples were, in some 
sense, holy before the day of Pentecost as really as 
23* 



270 satan's devices and 

after that day. It is a precious fact, that the true 
disciple, though but a babe, is fully and perfectly 
justified before the Father. The law shall lay noth- 
ing to his charge. He is in Christ, and is as per- 
fectly accepted now, while conformed to the light 
which belongs to his spiritual infancy, as he will be 
when his knowledge and corresponding obedience 
shall have carried him up to his spiritual manhood. 
Of course, all boasting is excluded alike at every 
stage of attainment, for all is of grace. Boasting is 
a fruit of self-righteousness alone, not of that which 
is of God by faith. 

On the theory we have presented, the harmony of 
the Bible is apparent. There is a substantial sense 
in which the Christian who walks fully up to the 
knowledge he has attained, is holy, clean, obedient ; 
and another, not inconsistent sense, in which, lacking 
higher knowledge from the Spirit, and the consequent 
completeness of strength and usefulness it would give 
him, he is yet imperfect as a Christian, and has need 
to heed the injunction and example of Paul, and press 
on toward the highest attainments in the knowledge 
and life of God, growing in grace and wisdom, and 
in favor with God and man. 

Again : the two apparently conflicting theories, 
that sanctification is an instantaneous, and that it is 
a progressive work, are, by our view, harmonized. 
The revelation of knowledge, the manifestation of 
truth to the mind by the Spirit, as on the day of 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 271 

Pentecost, is often instantaneous ; and so far as sanc- 
tification is effected by this inflowing of divine knowl- 
edge, it must be an instantaneous work. 

But, on the other hand, the Spirit shows us the 
things of Christ as we are able to receive them, after 
long inquiry and study often, one at a time, one 
thing to-day, and another to-morrow, and so on 
forever; and for that reason, sanctification, as the 
result of advancing knowledge, must be a progressive 
work, advancing in depth and power as divine knowl- 
edge increases. 

Again : according to the theory of some, there 
remains in the Christian heart, after conversion, what 
is termed, in the somewhat blind language of theol- 
ogy, much "inbred corruption," which sanctification 
is supposed to remove. Does not the view we have 
presented give an intelligible idea of what this " inbred 
corruption" is, and how it is to be removed? Was 
not the " inbred corruption " of the disciples between 
their conversion and their sanctification, so to call it, 
on the day of Pentecost, simply that working of 
their minds according to nature and habit which was 
consequent on their having, as yet, so little and 
such imperfect knowledge of God and Christ by the 
Holy Ghost ? And was not its removal, the natural 
result to them of the divine manifestation they re- 
ceived on the day of the Spirit's advent? 

Again : the apparently conflicting doctrines of 
* ability " and " inability " may, in the light of our 



272 satan's devices and 

theory, be seen to be perfectly true and harmo- 
nious. 

The will is, in its nature, free, and all moral action 
involves choice. God requires men to choose, to 
will, as he does. But there are some absolute condi- 
tions to the exercise of choice. There must be an 
object of choice, and this object must be made known 
to the mind. God himself, in his will and character, 
is the proper object of choice ; but he can not be truly 
and intelligently chosen until he is made known to us 
by his Spirit, who alone can reveal him. The use of 
our ability to love and obey God, depends, then, 
absolutely upon him. A man who is lost may have 
ability to go home, but he can not use it till he knows 
which way to go : his difficulty is not want of ability 
directly, but of knowledge. Does not the old school 
doctrine of inability lie exactly here, and is it not 
true? But when an object, worthy of choice or love, 
is revealed to the mind's apprehension, then we can 
easily and naturally bring our ability into play, and 
choose it. We can take hold upon it, and receive it 
into our hearts. This we are doing every day. 
Does not the new school doctrine of ability lie here, 
and is it not true, and beautifully harmonious with 
the doctrine of apparent inability ? 

"Man lost all ability of will in the fall," says the 
Catechism, to love and obey God. And was it not, 
because he thereby lost the knowledge of God, and, 
according to Paul (Eph. 4:18), became "alienated 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 273 

from the life of God through the ignorance of him " 
which sin involved, that he lost his ability to love 
and serve God? To lose the knowledge of God is, 
practically, so far, to lose our ability to love him. 

Both schools say, nevertheless, that no man is ex- 
cusable for remaining in sin. And does not the 
reason for this lie in the fact that God has put some 
knowledge of himself in every man's reason, and set 
it forth in his works, so that all may lay hold of that, 
and be led on, from step to step, in the advancing 
light of providence, and grace, and revelation, unto 
eternal life ? Free as the will is, we are still depend- 
ent on the Spirit for a knowledge of the true object 
to be chosen ; but the Holy One knows this, and waits 
to be gracious. The Sun of Eighteousness shines all 
about us, and his light is shut out from men's minds 
only by a positive volition closing the eyes against it. 

The Bible is entirely consistent in holding men 
under obligation immediately to obey God, and in 
teaching that no man can come unto him except he is 
drawn by the Holy Spirit. The conditions of choice, 
so far as they are dependent upon God, are fulfilled ; 
obligation is complete. The new school teacher 
need not fear to press men at once to lay hold of an 
offered Savior, to rush into Mercy's outstretched 
arms, through any apprehension that the Spirit's part 
of the work will not be performed ; nor need the 
old school divine embarrass his efforts by the con- 
sideration of the sinner's inability. Let him summon 



274 satan's devices ajsd 

the transgressor to an immediate surrender to a loving 
and waiting Savior. 

Again : the two apparently opposite doctrines of 
the sinfulness and non-sinfulness of our nature may, 
perhaps, receive some hopeful elucidation from our 
theory. 

If you put falsehood, instead of truth, into the 
intellect; if the "law of sin," of supreme selfishness, 
be the thing known there and held as true, and if the 
will is given up and committed to the execution, in 
life, of this law so enthroned in the mind, then, of 
course, and by its very nature and constitution, the 
whole mental and moral machinery will go wrong, 
invariably so. The thinking, the feeling, the acting, 
whether it be K plowing " or praying, will be all sin- 
ful and out of the way. Depravity, in one form or 
another, must and will be the outcome. If you 
reverse the action of the machinery, the locomotive 
will only go backward on or off the track, and down 
the embankment, or wherever the switch and rails 
will let it go. Adjust the machineiy properly, and it 
will do its work all right. It is in the nature of the 
machinery so to act in the one case, and, by the same 
law, contrariwise in the other. So with the mind, when 
its action is reversed by the consecration of the will to 
falsehood, held as truth in the understanding. It is 
a thing of course, and the mind can not act otherwise 
than wrong under these conditions. It will go back- 
ward from God and rectitude, speaking lies ^nd doing 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 275 

whatever the enthroned law of selfishness demands. 
On the other hand, adjust the will to the truth, and, 
by the laws of its being, in this case as in the other, 
the action of the mind will correspond with the truth. 
By his very nature, then, when a man so perverts his 
powers, he is wholly sinful, totally depraved. 

Since God has done the best that possibly could be 
done for moral agents to lead them not to reverse the 
action of their powers, but to operate them according 
to truth as he has revealed and will reveal it, and 
since the only reason why men have not the knowl- 
edge of God — even the heathen — is, that they are 
w unwilling to retain " it in their hearts, his ways need 
no vindication, and we can not excuse our sins on the 
supposition of a sinful nature. A nature which would 
work in opposite moral directions — forward or back- 
ward, toward good or evil — in accordance with his 
sovereign choice of truth or falsehood is the glorious 
prerogative of a free moral agent. 

Does not, then, the relation of the mind's willful 
knowledge or ignorance of God to its practical work- 
ing, help to solve the difficulty of a so-called sinful 
nature? If such a relation, as our theory suggests, 
exists, — if men, to be moral agents, must have 
natures capable of development under laws of 
error as well as of truth, of evil as well as of good, 
— why find fault with God for giving us such natures, 
or why look back into a pre-existent state for a 
method of justifying God in his dealings with the 
race? 



276 satan's devices and 

Again : one class of Christians say, that to be in 
doubt and great uncertainty about our acceptance 
with Christ, and about the genuineness of our reli- 
gious exercises, is a better evidence of our good es- 
tate than to be confident and firmly assured. Another 
class hold the opposite view, and say, that to doubt 
is wrong ; that confidence and full assurance are to 
be expected and cherished. The former class are 
annoyed by the exulting and positive experience of 
the latter; and the latter class pity and blame the 
former for their apparent lack of confidence and joy- 
ful assurance in the infinitely trustworthy and glori- 
ous Savior. "Where does the truth lie ? Or has each 
view its element of truth? 

We answer, that to doubt and distrust the testi- 
mony of God's Spirit, to receive with suspicion and 
misgivings the knowledge which he gives, is clearly 
wrong, and must be of evil tendency. If he testifies 
to our spirits, and bears his witness (Rom. 8: 16), 
that we are the children of God, and if lie put the 
"Abba, Father," into our hearts, then to doubt and 
distrust is to treat him as a liar ! If the testimony 
of God may not give assurance, then assurance is im- 
possible, and universal unbelief and skepticism are 
inevitable. Ought Abraham to have admitted doubt 
into his mind during those twenty-five long years, 
while he was waiting for the fulfillment of the prom- 
ise ? Paul commends his faith as an example to the 
whole Israel of Grod, for the express reason that he 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 277 

refused to w stagger," and persisted, with "full per- 
suasion," in the faithfulness of God, although the 
temptation to doubt was such as compelled him to 
"hope against hope." When Peter could say in the 
very presence of Christ, "Lord, thou knowest all 
things ; thou knowest that I love thee," ought he to 
have doubted his acceptance ? When Paul was con- 
scious to himself that he " counted all things but loss 
for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ," and 
that he was unwilling to know any thing but Christ 
and him crucified, ought he to have distrusted his 
acceptance, and accounted his doubts the best evi- 
dence that his name was in the book of life ? When 
Luther heard the Holy Ghost say to his toiling, self- 
righteous soul, "The just shall live by faith," should 
he have doubted? Ought any man who has been 
earnestly inquiring the way of life, and who has, con- 
sciously, as a lost sinner, cast himself trustfully upon 
the Savior of lost sinners, and who has found his 
broken heart and subdued will, saying, "Lord, what 
wilt thou have me to do?" and sweetly preferring 
the will of Jesus above all else, — ought he to doubt, 
or should he boldly "reckon himself" an accepted 
disciple of Christ ? Nothing would suit Satan better, 
or enable him to cripple the elect of God more effect- 
ually, than that, in such circumstances, they should 
yield to doubt, and thus distrust the testimony of the 
Holy Ghost. The Bible, every where, aims to pro- 
duce the most unwavering confidence toward God, 
24 



278 satan's devices and 

But if we attempt to prove to ourselves our disciple- 
ship on any other testimony than that of the Spirit 
and Word of God, or by any testimony the natural 
man can furnish, or by any proof drawn from our 
own works of righteousness, we may well be full of 
doubt and uncertainty. To doubt such testimony is 
better evidence of piety than to give it full credit. 

But will not both classes of Christians referred to 
be found to agree perfectly in cherishing the fullest 
confidence in all the knowledge of God and of our own 
spiritual states which the Holy Ghost shall attest, 
and agree in maintaining the utter untrustworthiness 
of any conclusions concerning the things of the Spirit 
which arc not verified by his testimony ? While God 
will not lie, andean not be mistaken, it is certain that 
a selfish heart is sure to be mistaken about divine 
things. We may, therefore, trust God implicitly, 
and yet "have no confidence in the flesh." 

Again : there is a difference among Christians as 
to the means of attaining to a state of practical sanc- 
tification in the world. Some would set forth the 
abstract idea of holiness, and urge men to seek it 
directly by an act of faith, and to profess its attain- 
ment as a means of retaining the blessing. Others have 
no hope of being able to reach such a spiritual state 
by any direct effort to gain it, or to help the matter 
by professing its attainment. Their idea is, faith- 
fully to perform their duty, and leave their sanctifi- 
cation to be wrought out for them by the Spirit, 
without any agency of their own. 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 279 

Now, if the view we have set forth is the true one, 
it is not a state of sanetification which is to be 
sought after and obtained by an act of faith directly ', 
but the knowledge of God by the Spirit, the result 
of which is, a degree of sanetification answering in 
measure to the knowledge gained. What we are 
called upon to profess, or testify to, for the honor of 
God and for the encouragement of others, is, that 
which we have learned of him, with grateful recog- 
nition of its effects upon our own hearts and lives. 
Those who ignore any effort to gain the great spirit- 
ual victory designated by the term w sanetification," or 
" assurance of faith," overlook the palpable fact that 
the " knowledge of God " is promised only to those 
who seek for it with all the heart ; and that, although 
the blessing was specially promised, by the ascending 
Redeemer, within a few days, the disciples did never- 
theless assemble in an upper room, and there wait in 
prayer and supplication, with one accord, till, on the 
day of Pentecost, the blessing came. We once 
heard a distinguished clergyman condemn special 
prayer meetings to pray for the baptism of the Spirit, 
on the ground that the blessing was only to be gained 
as the result of earnest activity in the performance of 
religious duty. 

If he meant to say that the reflex influence upon 
the mind of duty performed is identical with the 
Spirit's baptism, or that the gift of the Spirit is pro- 
cured by works and not by faith, was he not in mani- 



280 satan's devices and 

fest error ? If he meant to intimate that, for those 
who perform their known duty, such gatherings and 
such waiting upon God for the blessing are out of 
place, was he not in error? If he meant to condemn 
praying for the manifestation of the Spirit, on the 
part of those who refuse to perform their known 
duty, if there be such, his strictures were plainly not 
amiss. All parties should harmonize in the determi- 
nation, first, to do all the known will of God, and 
then to wait on God, "with all prayer and supplica- 
tion," "without ceasing," with the faith of an Abra- 
ham and the urgency of a Jacob, for that promised 
work of the Spirit, which, from glory to glory, shall 
develop the soul into the image of Christ 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 281 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

SATAN'S METHODS OF OPPOSING THE CHRISTIAN'S SANCTI- 

FICATION. 

Now, the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the 
Lord God had made. — Gen. 3: 1. 

All that has been said in previous chapters of the 
devices of Satan, applies here. In all the methods 
hitherto pointed out, the adversary opposes the prog- 
ress of the church in a holy life ; and he does it with 
increased subtlety as she presses her way upward 
into the higher spheres of religious truth and expe- 
rience. 

As we have abundantly shown, all advancement in 
holiness is the fruit of the Spirit, acquainting the soul 
with God. To make progress, the believer must 
needs maintain the right attitude of mind toward the 
Sanctifier. In the words of the apostle, he must be 
"led by the Spirit," and "walk in the Spirit." To 
prevent his doing this, Satan will do his utmost. 
When he can not successfully deny to men the exist- 
ence of the Holy Ghost, he will insinuate doubts as 
to the possibility of being taught by an invisible, dis- 
embodied being, — at least, suggest grave difficulties 
in the way; he will provoke self-will, and pride, and 
an unteachable spirit, and make men forget their 
24* 



282 satan's devices and 

dependence, and f ' lean to their own understandings ; " 
he will himself counterfeit the work of the Comforter, 
and infuse his own subtle and plausible suggestions 
to counteract the Spirit's ministrations, and nullify 
all his teachings. 

After a man has gained so much knowledge of God 
as is implied in becoming a Christian, and has learned 
the beginnings of gospel truth, the effort of Satan 
will be to prevent his continuing firmly obedient to 
this knowledge. In this way, he often entirely 
arrests the soul's progress. The believer, having 
entered upon the Christian course, must be subjected 
to the refining process by pruning-knife, or crucible, 
or cross ; and the question at issue w T ill be, whether 
he will obey the truth and follow Christ, when the 
soul is overwhelmed with w heaviness through mani- 
fold temptations," or resist and turn back? Xot im- 
frequently, in such conflict, Satan bewilders and 
baffles the Christian, and gains a temporary advan- 
tage, carrying the will over even to the denial of the 
Master. Happy will it be for one thus overcome, if, 
like Peter, he shall go out and weep bitterly, and so, 
immediately find himself re-united to Christ in a 
more firm and loving obedience. 

Satan, again, will strive hard to satisfy the mind 
with a mere natural apprehension of divine things, 
instead of that knowledge of them which it is the 
sole province of the Holy Ghost to give. Such 
knowledge can bring no life. How many, alas ! know 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 283 

Christ only by hearsay ! They have read of him in 
the Bible, heard eloquent discourses about him from 
the pulpit, have seen his portrait; but they have 
never "beheld the Lamb of God," by the Spirit's 
showing, so as to have their sins "taken away." 
They are " ever learning " about Christ and his doc- 
trine in the light of their own beclouded powers, but 
are "never able to come to the knowledge of the 
truth" in its sanctifying efficacy. 

Again : Satan will, if possible, awaken a practical 
unbelief in respect to the feasibility of living a tri- 
umphantly victorious life while in the flesh. How 
few persons really expect, habitually, to overcome 
the world ! They know they are to be tempted, and 
believe the tempter will triumph over them. They 
magnify the power of the adversary, they dwell upon 
the peculiar difficulties of their case, arid are afraid to 
venture upon the Deliverer with a full confidence that 
he will make them conquerors indeed, by his own 
powder. They fear to make the promises their own ; 
they forget the covenant and the oath of the Eedeem- 
er ; they lose sight of the "strongholds," — the altar 
and the mercy-seat, — and have no heart to insist, 
"By these the victory is mine, now and forever" 
Thus they are full of a subtle unbelief, into which 
Satan has inveigled them. They have bowed their 
necks to the yoke of bondage, w T hich they expect to 
wear all their lives, looking to their own death, at 
last, for deliverance, instead of looking now to Christ 



284 satan's devices and 

for a power to break their yoke, and to put them into 
"the glorious liberty of the children of God." So 
unbelieving has the church been, that it has often 
been deemed almost a heresy to hold that a practical 
victory over " the world, the flesh, and the devil," is 
even possible to the Christian. 

So long as Satan is allowed to hold the mind in 
such a form of unbelief as this, no real progress can 
be made in the divine life. There will be no earnest 
" fighting of the good fight of faith ; " or if it be 
attempted, defeat will only succeed defeat; for "this 
is the victory that overcometh the world, even our 
faith." 

Again : it will be like Satan to awaken prejudice 
against the doctrine of sanctification, as he did 
against the Lord Jesus Christ, so that men will be 
repelled from inquiring after the truth. It will be 
another similar device of the adversary, to give men 
a perverted view of the doctrine, to make it seem 
incomprehensible, or mystical, or impracticable, and 
thus to render it of none effect. 

Again : Satan will take great pains to conceal from 
men the marvelous simplicity of the way of holiness. 
Salvation is all a free gift, without money or price. 
God is the Great Giver. He gives every thing, and 
with a bountifulness corresponding to his infinite 
nature. There can be no traffic between us and God. 
Our exchanges with him must all be made, not on 
the principle of debt and credit, loss and gain, but of 



the believer's victory. 285 

giving and receiving. He gives us every thing with 
himself, and we must give all to him — give it to him 
out and out — not for a price, not for heaven even, 
nor for salvation, nor for any other equivalent. His 
gifts and ours are not equal at all, nor does he require 
them to be. His are infinite ; ours are nothing and 
less than nothing to him. The higher blessings of 
the gospel, equally with the lower, are the simple 
gifts of God. Now, Satan seeks to hide all this from 
the mind, and to set men, upon commercial princi- 
ples, to buying salvation, to proposing an equivalent 
for it. Said a gentleman to his wife, who had found 
Jesus as a full and present Savior, "My dear, how 
did you get this blessing? what did you do to ob- 
tain it ? " "I did not do any thing ; God gave it to 
me." This opened his eyes. He was toiling and 
struggling to gain it, as a man struggles to make 
money, to gain earthly good ; as Luther was working, 
when God said to him, "The just shall live by faith." 
It was a new idea to him that the Infinite Giver had 
given, even to him, eternal life (1 John 5 : 11), and 
that he had only to accept it, — to believe the record 
which God had made, — to secure the blessing in his 
own soul. He did believe, and his heart, too, was 
satisfied. Salvation, from beginning to end, is free 
to every humble, trusting applicant. It can not be 
had for a price, whether it be the money offered by 
Simon Magus, or the good works gloried in by the 
Pharisee. Let not Satan blind the reader, then, to 



286 satan's devices and 

the simplicity of the way. God has given us every 
thing; believe it ; prove him. Let your intercourse 
with him be all on the principle of love ; let there be 
the perpetual exchange of gifts. Give him all you 
have — yourself, your love, your confidence, your 
obedience, your name, influence, fortune, friends; 
give all, all, ALL; and take gratefully his gifts to 
you — his Son, his Spirit, his promises, the heavenly 
inheritance — the "all things "which he has said "are 
yours." Let his gifts interpret to you his love ; and 
let that love work in you a responsive, all-consuming 
love to him ; and let the free gift to him of your 
whole being express and illustrate your devotion to 
his will- 
Again : Satan will persuade men that it is not 
necessary to make special attainments in holiness in 
this life. He can suggest, w You have been converted ; 
your name is in the book of life ; the doctrine of the 
saints' perseverance is true, and you will not fail of 
heaven ; you will become holy when 3 ou die, and this 
is all-sufficient." To listen, for a moment, to such a 
suggestion, is unworthy of a disciple of Christ. The 
Scriptures demand growth in grace, and would in- 
spire us to leave the things that are behind, and to go 
on toward spiritual maturity and manhood, and to be 
steadfast in obedience to Christ. They require this 
as positively as they require the first acts of submis- 
sion and repentance for sin. Our usefulness, our 
mission in the world, demand that we "go forward," 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 287 

though the sea and the wilderness are before us. 
We must advance and overcome the world, or be 
overcome by it, and fall back into a life of sin and 
unbelief, in which we shall w forget that we were 
purged from our old sins," and they will return, 
with a sevenfold strength, to bring us again in 
bondage. 

Many, again, are kept from special and rapid 
progress in the divine life, by the wrong public 
sentiment and the unfavorable example which pre- 
vail in the churches. In some churches the tendency 
is strong in the direction of conformity to the world, 
and of a loose liberality in sentiment. It is not 
difficult for Satan to persuade men to measure them- 
selves by themselves, and to compare themselves 
among themselves, and thus to satisfy them with an 
almost ruinous standard of attainment. 

Again : the grand device of Satan to prevent the 
sanctification of the church will be, of course, to hold 
the mind in a state of self-righteousness, as a means 
of keeping it from the "righteousness which is of 
God by faith;" to confuse and reverse, in men's 
experiences, the principles of faith and works. The 
urgency with which Paul treated this subject shows 
that he regarded it as Satan's stronghold. 

What, definitely, is seZ/*-righteousness ? That man 
is se?/-righteous, who, feeling the natural sense of 
obligation to do right, and taking his idea of what is 
right from his own darkened mind or from the letter 



288 satan's devices and 

of the Bible, tries, by the energy he has within him 
by nature, to bring his voluntary acts into conformity 
with this idea. Now, by such M deeds of the law " no 
man can be justified; and for two reasons : (1.) His 
idea is wrong. He makes righteousness to consist in 
specific, and generally outward acts, while the right 
thing which God requires is a state of mind — a 
supreme love to him and equal love to men. (2.) 
Men are not, as a matter of fact, successful in carry- 
ing into execution that which they know, in reason, 
to be right. Their supreme selfishness effectually 
counteracts their subordinate purpose to do right. 
It so perverts their judgment and conscience, that 
what their selfishness dictates they call right, and, 
therefore, often do the most wicked things under the 
notion that they are righteous. The Jews did this of 
old ; men have done so in all ages. The dominant law 
of sin and selfishness, which reigns in all unreirener- 
ate men, often so crushes out the impulse of natural 
affection, even, and overrules all the better senti- 
ments of human nature, that father is arrayed against 
son, and son against father, and brother against 
brother, in the most angry and bloody strife, each 
insisting that he is doing right. Of course, only self- 
righteousness exists in such cases. The righteous- 
ness which is of God by faith never wars against 
itself, nor against the divinely implanted qualities of 
our natures. 

The universal consciousness and experience of the 






THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 289 

race is, that man's powers are so weakened by sin, 
that he can not be trusted to do right under the pres- 
sure of temptation, even though he should seem 
determined to do so. We will not hear the testi- 
mony of an interested witness, nor suffer him upon 
the juror's bench. He will not withstand the cataract 
of temptation; his selfishness, not his unperverted 
sense of right, will rule over him ; and how then can 
he be acquitted at the bar of eternal justice ? 

Self-righteous men fail to understand the true 
character of God, and to take into proper account 
their relations to him, and his claims upon them. 
Suppose the prodigal, in the land of his estrange- 
ment, had said to himself, w I will be a gentleman, a 
good, honest citizen, pay my debts, and conform to 
the moral maxims of the people : " he might have 
passed for a righteous man among his neighbors ; but 
would that have reconciled matters between him and 
his father? Mr. Jefferson Davis may be the fairest 
of men before his fellow-secessionists ; he may be a 
model of honor before foreign powers whose aid he 
seeks in his rebellion ; he may proclaim fasts and 
petition Heaven with urgent supplications for help in 
his wild crusade ; he may even have deceived him- 
self into the idea that he is doing right ; but would 
all this help his standing with the United Sates gov- 
ernment, to which a hundred oaths of allegiance have 
bound him, all of which he has broken? How absurd 
to expect he could be justified and acquitted by our 
25 



290 satan's devices and 

Supreme Court, on the ground that his present acts of 
war on this government, which he calls right acts^ 
are so in fact ! Is it not infinitely more absurd to 
think that a sinner in rebellion against God can be 
justified, in the Supreme Court of Heaven, on the 
ground that his so-called right acts are in accordance 
with God's holy law, and arc, therefore, acceptable 
to him in the place of a heart of loyal and loving 
obedience ? Nothing but condemnation can possibly 
await the mere moralist at the bar of eternal justice ! 
What, on the other hand, is the righteousness of 
God by faith ? It begins in the confession that we 
are utterly lost and condemned by the law, and that 
no acts of ours, while the heart itself remains alien- 
ated from God, can be acceptable to him and con- 
formed to his requirements. Despairing of justifica- 
tion by any merits of our own, we betake ourselves, 
in penitence and faith, to Christ, the sinner's Savior, 
and are saluted with the loving assurance, ff I have 
found a ransom ; thy sins are forgiven thee ; go in 
peace." Then the Holy Ghost opens to the soul 
God's love in Christ, which kindles in the believer's 
heart, and he is a new creature. The very love 
which the law of God requires springs up there, and 
forms a new element, a new life in his experience. 
"What the law could not do in that it was weak 
through the flesh," Christ has done for him, and "the 
righteousness of the law" — the right thing, in fact, 
which it requires — " is fulfilled in him " (Rom. 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 291 

8 :3, 4). Out of this fountain of love, his acts of 
obedience sweetly flow. He looks not for justifica- 
tion on the ground that his works are right, but on 
that of Christ's atonement alone ; and his outward 
acts are expressive of his love to Jesus, which love, 
according to his measure of attainment and knowl- 
edge, will be coincident, in fact, with the love which 
the law demands. 

Now, it is the grand policy of Satan, with men who 
desire to be righteous, to seduce them into a state of 
self-righteousness, to prevent their coming, as lost 
sinners, to the Redeemer, to receive the true right- 
eousness as a free gift. He plays adroitly upon their 
sense of obligation to perform right deeds. He 
urges that it is most noble and wise ; that God and 
man must alike be pleased with such consistency ; 
that it wall satisfy conscience and insure self-respect ; 
that it is safe for time and hopeful for eternity ; that 
it is profitable on general principles, at least, and can 
be followed by no disastrous consequences. Satan 
is a terribly urgent preacher of legal righteousness to 
those whom he sees disposed to inquire after the 
righteousness of faith. He would drive Sarah's chil- 
dren into the wilderness with Hagar. He would be- 
witch those who have begun in the Spirit (Gal. 3:1), 
subsequently to betake themselves to the law. A 
good brother, with an instructive experience on this 
subject, describes his exercises thus: "I thought I 
must obey the law, and went to Moses to make terms 



292 satan's devices and 

with him, and he at once knocked ine down. I knew 
I deserved it, and did not complain. I prepared 
myself, and went again ; and, with a severer blow, he 
brought me to the ground a second time. I was 
amazed, and entreated him to hear me. But he 
drove me from Sinai, and gave me no satisfaction. 
In my despair, I went to Calvary. There I found 
One who had pity on me, forgave my sins, and filled 
my heart with his love. I looked at him, and his heal- 
ing mercy penetrated my whole being, and cured the 
malady within. Now, I went back to Moses to tell 
him what had happened. He smiled on me, shook 
my hand, and greeted me most lovingly ; and he has 
never knocked me down since. I go by Calvary to 
Sinai, and all its thunders are silent. " 

What a rebuke was that of the self-righteousness 
of the Pharisees who had done so much, when Jesus 
set a little child before them, who had never offered 
one sacrifice, nor made one long prayer, and said to 
them, "Except ye be converted, and become as this 
little child, ye can not enter the kingdom of heaven." 
They did not know that the child's spirit of trust, 
dependence, and love was of more value than all 
their self-righteous services. 

Are there not many in our churches who are saying, 
w Have we not eaten and drunk in thy presence ? have 
we not prayed and labored in thy vineyard ? have we 
not given our money to extend thy kingdom, and 
even done many wonderful works ? Surely the door 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 293 

will not be shut against us." Would that they might 
escape this subtle device of the adversary, and make 
sure of the righteousness of faith. 

Unconverted men, who are taken in this snare of 
the enemy, often affect to sneer at these discrimina- 
tions. To such, let it be said that there is nothing 
in them peculiar to religion. If the breach and alien- 
ation were between a husband and wife, a parent and 
child, or between two personal friends, no outward 
acts, however fair in appearance toward third parties, 
would avail any thing. The offender must come back 
into loving and confiding relations to the offended, so 
that his conduct will be expressive of a true state of 
heart, or reconciliation is simply impossible. Until 
this is done, external deeds, no matter how plausible, 
can be, in the eye of the injured party, only hypocrit- 
ical, and can only add insult to injury. 

If any of this class of men are disposed to deny 
that God can have any controversy with those who 
hold that they are righteous before him, because they 
regard their own acts as righteous, their controversy 
is alike with the New Testament and with the com- 
mon judgment of mankind. 
25* 



294 satan's devices and 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

SATAN'S EFFORTS TO CRIPPLE THE MINISTERS OF THE 
GOSPEL, AND RENDER THEIR PREACHING POWERLESS. 

And he showed me Joshua, the high-priest, standing before the angel of 
the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. — Zech. 3 : 1. 

In the context preceding the passage quoted, we 
have one of those prophetic visions, in which the 
Messiah appears to gather, enlarge, and bless his 
church. Jerusalem is measured, the Jews are 
brought back from their captivity in Babylon, the 
daughter of Zion is filled with praise and rejoicing, 
and many nations are gathered into the fold of the 
Divine Shepherd. Joshua, representing the priest- 
hood, stands before the Lord of hosts, offering sacri- 
fices upon his altar ; and Satan also appears at his 
right hand — a most effective post — to resist him. 

The vision is, doubtless, of New Testament times ; 
and we are to regard Satan as now standing at the 
right hand of God's ministers, while engaged in their 
most holy functions, for the purpose of resisting 
them, and of defeating their best efforts to save men. 
That he has much success, who can doubt? 

Upon no class of persons has God laid such respon- 
sibility as upon Christian ministers. None, perhaps, 
can do so much good or evil as they. Commissioned 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 295 

as God's embassadors to the world, Satan will, 
through them, strike at the whole race. If he can 
corrupt their hearts or their teachings, or misguide 
them in their life, it will go far toward the accom- 
plishment of his dire purpose on the earth. None, 
therefore, more than they have need to be doubly- 
armed against the foe. 

Christ did not fail to make abundant provision for 
his ministers. When he bade them "go into all the 
world, and preach the gospel to every creature," he 
said, "Lo, I am with you always ; " and before they 
should enter upon their great work, he pledged them 
the fulfillment of the "promise of the Father," by 
which they should be "endued with power from on 
high," and be introduced into the higher privileges 
and blessings of the New Testament, as distinguished 
from the Old. Waiting in Jerusalem till the day of 
Pentecost, they received the baptism of the Holy 
Ghost, and their lips were touched with heaven's fire. 
It is surely the New Covenant or Testament which 
furnishes the proper anointing for those who are 
called to preach the gospel. Between the Old and 
the New, the distinction is broad and vital. The Old 
" gendereth to bondage ; " the New proclaims liberty : 
the . Old opened the way into the outer tabernacle ; 
the New rends the vail, and introduces the believer 
into the Holy of Holies : the Old could not purify 
the conscience ; the New sprinkles it with clean 
water: the Old held forth the truth in letter and 



296 satan's devices and 

shadow ; the New manifests its substance and spirit as 
an all-controlling, divine life in the soul itself: the 
Old had an infirm, human priesthood ; the New has 
the Lord of glory himself for Priest, Mediator, and 
Surety. 

Christ commanded his disciples, just before his 
ascension, not to depart from Jerusalem upon their 
mission to testify the gospel to the world, until he 
should be glorified, and the baptism of the Spirit 
should be given them. They waited, the Spirit 
descended, and the New Testament was fulfilled in 
them. 

And now, dear brethren, does not this command to 
tarry in Jerusalem for "the promise of the Father," 
pertain to us as much as it did to those who first 
preached the gospel under the Spirit's dispensation ? 
Vitally united to Christ by this baptism, we shall be 
able, in his strength, to do all things. Having this 
"unction from the Holy One," our ministry will be 
divinely authenticated. White our feet tread the 
paths of men, we shall walk with God, and enjoy a 
vivid realization of the truths we preach. Conscious, 
though we may be, of our infirmity and weakness, 
we shall know that his strength is made perfect, and 
abounds in our behalf. Ours will be an "earnest 
ministry," indeed, and our words will be as thunder- 
bolts, or sunbeams, or drops of dew and honey, as 
our indwelling Immanuel shall please. Our faith will 
take hold of the highest and richest things of God's 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 297 

kingdom, and all the possibilities within us will be 
brought into the most vigorous use. There seems no 
good reason why the same unselfish devotion to 
Christ and the same burning zeal which characterized 
Paul should not be in us. 

Without this heavenly anointing, we can doubtless 
preach ; we can make the services of the sanctuary 
beautiful, impressive, and even solemn. Presenting 
the Divine Christ, only as in marble or on canvas, we 
may indeed stir the religious sensibilities and gain 
the " praise of men ; " we may secure an outward 
prosperity, and w sell the pews," and meet the require- 
ments of the church in her spiritual apathy ; but can 
we obey the command, "Be ye clean, who bear the 
vessels of the Lord " ? and can we habitually lead men 
to the spiritual apprehension of Christ ? If we foil to 
move forward and gain the Spirit's teachings, must 
we not fall back into the legal dispensation, under 
the Old Covenant, and withhold from the people the 
liberty which Christ proclaims, and bring upon our- 
selves the fearful denunciations uttered by Ezekiel 
(Chap. 13, 14) against the prophets who "prophesy 
out of their own hearts," and w daub with untempered 
mortar " ? 

There are many ways in which Satan will strive to 
annihilate the moral power of our ministry. 

1. First of all, he will, if possible, keep us from 
attaining the baptism of the Holy Spirit. To pre- 
vent this, no appliances will be left untried. 



298 satan's devices and 

2. He will do his utmost to draw us into that state 
in which we shall so K seek the honor of men, and not 
the honor which cometh from God only," that the 
exercise of a living trust in Christ may be to us 
impossible. It is not easy to the natural man "to 
make ourselves of no reputation." The "old man" 
is proud and ambitious, and hates to go to the 
cross. 

3. He will, if he can, induce us to rely upon our 
own wisdom and sufficiency — to "lean to our own 
understandings" more than is safe. Have we not 
been through the schools ? Have we not studied the 
Bible, the canons of the church, and systems of doc- 
trine, in dead languages and living ones? Have we 
not sat at the feet of the masters, and do we not 
know the truth? Subordinated to the Spirit's teach- 
ings, human learning is good ; otherwise it will, in 
spiritual things, only mislead us. Paul's remark is as 
true now as when he made it, and of us as of him- 
self — "Xot that we are sufficient of ourselves to 
think any thing as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is 
of God." If we live not in the Spirit, we shall only 
promote a religion of the head — eminently satisfac- 
tory to our adversary — a religion which, one of our 
Unitarian journalists being judge, tends to "harden 
into skepticism, or flatten into formalism, or soft?u 
into sentimentalism, aestheticism, and such beautiful 
chants and prayers " ! 

4. Satan will strive to withhold us from sympathy 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 299 

and real oneness with Christ in his spirit of self- 
sacrifice. He would make us unwilling to know our 
Master in the smallness of his salary ; in his humil- 
ity, coming, as he did, "not to be ministered unto 
but to minister ; " in that benevolence which led him 
to love his enemies the more, the less they loved 
him, and to make their hatred to him a reason for 
using additional means to save them ; and in that 
uncomplaining forbearance which he exhibited in the 
garden, before Pilate, under the crown of thorns, 
and upon the cross itself. Satan knows full well 
that the very beginning of a successful ministry lies 
in going to the cross with Christ, and there dying to 
all selfish, ambitious, and worldly ends. To pre- 
vent this sacrifice, this whole burnt offering, and 
the new life and power which succeed it, will be 
his most successful means of destroying our useful- 
ness. 

5. Satan will do his utmost to make our teaching 
promotive of righteousness by works rather than of 
faith. This is an age of activity, of ceaseless work, 
of outward demonstration. All are called upon to 
act, to give, to labor here and there in the service 
of God and man. It is in the natural heart to take 
credit for good deeds, and make a righteousness of 
them. An outward righteousness affords the most 
plausible way of shunning the cross, and yet gaining 
hope of heaven. From the identity of human nature, 
in all ages, there is a constant necessity of guarding 



300 satan's devices and 

against the great error into which the Jews, in 
Christ's day, fell. 

It is easy to ring changes on what men ought to 
do ; but to bring home to them those influences 
which shall destroy all self-righteous hope, and open 
in their hearts fountains of love from which the vital 
current of true obedience shall spontaneously flow, 
requires that we be able ourselves to say with Paul, 
"I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless, I live; 
yet not I, but Christ liveth in me : and the life which 
I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son 
of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." 

6. The salvation which the church needs is em- 
phatically a present one. Here Satan is to be met; 
here the conflict rages ; here the whole power of 
Christianity to bring the world to Christ should be 
manifested. If our ministrations can be construed to 
favor the idea that salvation is a future rather than 
a present thing, and mainly of another world, we 
may be sure that Satan will make the most of such 
a construction, and thus destroy much of our power 
in preaching Christ's gospel. With that view, we 
can surely do but little toward checking the too 
dominant influence of worldliness in the church. 

I forbear to mention still other things of similar 
importance. 

Dear brethren in the ministry, allow one of the 
least in the brotherhood to ask, Are we in the Spirit, 
and is our preaching in the demonstration of the 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 301 

Spirit and with power? Do we speak with divine 
authority? Is the secret of the Lord with us, as we 
may and should have it ? Are we in advance of the 
sacramental host, able to lead them up the mountain 
of the Lord, to the temple of his holiness ? Can w T e 
conduct the people within the vail if we have not 
entered there ourselves? 

The state of the world; the amazing sweep of 
influence which Satan has over men; the hastening 
forward of the grand events which the prophets fore- 
saw in these later ages, and which are to herald the 
reign of Christ under a new heaven and on a new 
earth ; the fact that so much depends upon the faith- 
ful exhibition of God's truth in the full power and 
authority of the Holy Ghost ; and that such responsi- 
bilities are upon us as the embassadors of Christ, — 
all demand that we be furnished for our work as 
thoroughly as the gospel has provided that we may 
be ; and that we so use our ministry that nothing of 
the glory of our Kedeemer shall be lost through our 
neglect. 

26 



302 satan's devices and 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

THE GREAT FIGHT WITH AND VICTORY OVER SATAN; WITH 
A PASTOR'S SKETCH OF THE BATTLE SCENE 

And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. — Horn. 16 : 20. 

In the conflict with Satan, the saints are to be the 
conquerors. True, the victory is from God; but we 
are to stand upon the bruised head of the foe. The 
earnest Christian believer, girded with true heavenly 
might, is Guido's archangel, who, with the uplifted 
spear of God's double-edged Word, and with his foot 
upon the prostrate form of Satan, shall compel him 
to surrender. 

To learn the way of fighting successfully the battle 
with Satan is a cardinal attainment. Upon this 
must depend the question, whether we are to spend 
our days in bondage or in libeiiy ; whether we are 
to be the slaves of Satan, working his will, or the 
freemen of the Lord, rendering joyful and loving 
service to the Prince of Peace ; whether we are to 
render a good or an evil report of the land of prom- 
ise ; whether we are to honor Christ or crucify him 
afresh. 

When two great armies are arrayed against each 
other, the absorbing thought on both sides is, How 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 303 

shall we get advantage of the foe — how gain the vic- 
tory? Nothing avails till the battle is won. So it 
should be with the church in her conflict with the 
principalities and powers of evil ; so also with the 
individual disciple, who must, like David, be confront- 
ed with his Goliath, alone. How the victory can be 
surely won, we wish, with God's help, to illustrate. 

But we must first see just where the issue between 
the contending parties lies. If we make a false issue 
with the enemy, we fail, of course ; and he will, in 
this way, seek to outflank us if he can. We may 
seem to gain a battle when contending for the wrong 
thing, and have our bondage increased by the opera- 
tion. Let us not be satisfied to take some outpost 
of the enemy, but rather march upon his capital. 

Now, let it be considered, that, radically, the con- 
test is not for the putting forth of certain external 
acts, as it might at first seem, but for maintaining the 
right state of the mind itself. If the true and righteous 
decision of the soul, in regard to any matter of out- 
ward duty, be inflexibly maintained, the outward act 
will certainly be put forth. The failure will be in 
giving up the decision. Nor is the contest to escape 
temptation. We can make no terms with the enemy 
by which he will agree to let us alone, unless we sur- 
render unconditionally. Nor yet is the contest to 
retain a given state of the emotions. It is, indeed, 
agreeable to have an exultant state of the religious 
sensibility ; but to have that, alike in the wilderness 
or in the promised land, in the garden or on the 



304 SATAN'S DEVICES AND 

mount, may be neither possible nor desirable. God 
requires no such thing of us ; nor did it appear in the 
experience of Christ himself. 

The one great and essential issue is this : to hold 
the will true and loyal to the will of God. To swerve 
is defeat ; to stand fast, victory. 

The victorious element of our faith is just this 
voluntary one, which clings to Christ through storms 
and darkness ; which goes with him without the 
camp bearing his reproach ; which refuses to let the 
promise go, though the Angel of the Covenant him- 
self seem to deny the blessing, and though the ful- 
fillment be delayed, as in the case of Abraham for 
twenty-five long years, causing the soul to stagger 
under the severity of the trial ; which insists upon 
the divine faithfulness, although it seem to the mind 
that there is no possible way in which the promise 
can be fulfilled ; and which will not shrink from the 
agony of the garden, nor from the shameful death of 
the cross. To such a faith, indeed, "nothing is im- 
possible ; " and it insures the complete victory over 
Satan and every foe. 

Remembering that the great decisive battle turns 
upon this one point, the reader is invited to behold 
the conflict and the victory, in the following 

Sketch 

Of the experience of the pastor referred to in a pre- 
vious chapter. He had, as there shown, come to the 
knowledge of Christ, as a present and all-sufficient 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 305 

Redeemer. God had revealed his Son in him, in a 
sense before unknown. The manifestation was pre- 
cious beyond the power of language to describe. 
Christ and the Father had " come unto him to make 
their abode with him." His soul seemed quickened 
with the very life of God, and the promise, "Because 
I live, ye shall live also," was now his own by the 
sealing of the Spirit. The branch had come to abide 
in that Vine whose living currents carry healing 
whithersoever they flow. The joy was unutterable. 
Love filled his whole being, and overflowed in every 
direction toward God and all his creatures. Peace 
was, literally, like a river, and the righteousness of 
Christ, in him, like the waves of the sea. Faith 
reached the point of complete rest, of quietness and 
unwavering assurance. To love enemies, for Christ's 
sake, was as easy as to love friends ; to bear the 
reproach of Jesus was a conscious pleasure ; to fill up 
what was lacking in his sufferings, a sweet privilege. 
O, how excellent was this knowledge of God ! It 
was inspiring and life-giving indeed. The Bible was 
all luminous with the life and love of Jesus. The 
deep things of God rose to the surface. It was as if 
the Infinite One were communing with the soul, face 
to face, and the response was ready, "Through 
Christ who strengthened me," thus, "I can do all 
things," "bear all things," for in him is everlasting 
strength. For weeks, this excellent glory filled and 
satisfied his entire nature. 
26* 



306 satan's devices and 

But at length the scene was changed. The foun- 
tain of these living waters seemed dry. The light 
was gone, the glory had disappeared, and the con- 
sciousness of a present Savior was wholly wanting. 
The Father and Son seemed to have withdrawn from 
their abode in the temple within. The Word was 
silent and dark. The promises were there, but their 
streams of blessing would not flow. Joy was turned 
to sadness. Love, from a glowing and intense emo- 
tion, had come to be only a voluntary preference. 
All the waves and billows were driving around and 
upon the soul. 

Amazed and startled, the then student cried unto 
God, "Lord, why is this? Have I sinned? Have I 
grieved thy Spirit? AVhat shall I do? which way 
turn?" The difficulty was made all the worse that 
no immediate answer came. The heart was searched 
for an Achan, but nothing believed to be wrong was 
detected. Its language was, w Sooner let me die than 
sin." The whole soul was in agony at such a state of 
things. To one older in the faith of a present Re- 
deemer, the case was stated, who said, "It is temp- 
tation; but cling to Jesus, and lie will give you a 
glorious deliverance. It is for the trial of your faith. 
Satan desires to have you, and sift you as wheat; but 
stay yourself directly upon the promise, and victory 
is sure!" 

Now the battle was inaugurated. Satan would, if 
possible, force the agonized disciple to give up Christ 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 307 

as a present and almighty Savior, and to yield the 
conflict, under the idea that salvation was only a 
future and distant thing. Will the victory come? 
was the question. There stood the promise, con- 
firmed by the immutable oath of the Promiser ; but, 
as yet, it seemed only words — powerless words. The 
student's own strength was literally nothing. It 
seemed to him that a gossamer thread would better 
serve the purpose of a ship's cable, than his own 
strength would serve him in that battle with the 
powers of darkness. He said in his heart, "I anchor 
myself to the promise, 'My grace is sufficient for 
thee,' and looking unto Jesus by faith, I will sit at 
his feet and await the result." 

Satan was mad, and at once opened all his batteries 
upon the stripling believer. The shell and steel- 
pointed shot flew faster than they could be counted. 
It seemed as if hell were let loose upon him, to 
assault him, at every point, in his nature and charac- 
ter. The adversary stole the thunders of Sinai, and 
fought his antagonist with the terrors of the law. All 
manner of vile suggestions and corrupting thoughts 
were paraded before the eye of the imagination. The 
catalogue of his old sins was unrolled before his 
memory, and they were made to thunder with con- 
demnation and wrath, as if they had never been for- 
given. The old sore spots, which mercy had healed 
up, were torn open anew, andreinflamed with convic- 
tion. Hebrews 6 : 4-8, was adroitly urged by the 



308 satan's devices and 

adversary to extinguish hope and initiate a reign of 
fear and terror. The agony of the mind became 
almost insupportable. The deep cry of the young 
man was, "My God, my God, why hast thou for- 
saken me ! " He could only lie upon his couch and 
groan in anguish of spirit; and yet his soul said, 
K To go to the cross, even in this horror of darkness 
and conflict, is better than to yield." For days, the 
battle continued to grow fiercer and more terrible, 
till his soul began almost to stagger and tremble for 
the result. 

At length the Spirit came near, and entered into 
communion with the suffering disciple, and showed 
him where he was. The smoke of the battle cleared 
away, and it was given him to see, that, up to that 
point, he had not yielded. His will had remained 
firm. His moral position seemed to him to be well 
illustrated by a bridge thrown across a rapid stream, 
familiar to him in his boyhood. A firm stone abut- 
ment stood in the middle of the river, successfully 
resisting and turning aside the rushing w T aters, and 
sustaining the structure above. So, by God's grace, 
his will yet stood. But it was clear that Satan was 
pouring out his powerful spirit upon him, and that 
the flood of temptation was yet rising like the river 
in a spring freshet ; and then the question forced 
upon the mind, in this review, was, Will not the 
mad flood rise above the pier, carry away the bridge 
above, and finally bring down the abutment? Just 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 309 . 

at that juncture, when the mind was querying whether 
the temptation would not be greater than it could 
bear, the Holy Ghost opened and sealed these words 
of promise on the waiting heart : w There hath no 
temptation taken you but such as is common to man ; 
but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be 
tempted above that ye are able, but will, with the temp- 
tation, make a way to escape, that ye may be able to 
bear it." The victory was won, the enemy completely 
routed. It could not have been more perfect if the 
foe had been annihilated before the victor's eye. 

For the first time, in a seven years' Christian life, 
that disciple had learned to fight the good fight, and 
gain the victory of faith in a present, almighty 
Redeemer. It seemed to him as if he leaped, soul 
and body, in his exultation, to the ceiling of his 
room ; and such expressions as these came spontane- 
ously from his lips : "Now, Satan, I know you, and 
how to triumph over you ; " " Glory to God, I am 
more than conqueror through Him who has loved 
me ; " " This lesson is worth to me a thousand 
worlds ; " f? The victory of Wellington over Napoleon 
was nothing to this ; " K Thanksgiving and praise be 
unto Jesus, the Prince and Deliverer." The joy, the 
peace, and the glory which had been withdrawn for 
this trial of faith, all returned with doubly enhanced 
richness and fullness. The lessons from this victory 
were numerous and invaluable. 

Afterward, when temptation came, and faith was 



310 satan's devices and 

to be tried, as in the fire, the battle was easily fought. 
The soul settled itself down upon the promise, and 
waited patiently for the Deliverer, who was sure to 
come. The teachings of the Spirit in these conflicts 
were valuable, and furnished material wherewith to 
comfort the church of God in his future ministry. 

On one occasion afterward, this young man went 
through an experience of trial and victory, the nar- 
ration of which may be of service to others tried in 
like way. The peculiarity of the trial was its Jong 
continuance. The soul became tired with waiting, 
and wondered why the Deliverer did not appear. 
The very length of the temptation became a source, 
at last, of great uneasiness. Why was it so? He 
seemed to himself to bear it patiently, and knew not 
why the Lord delayed his coming. This long delay 
brought a severe strain upon the mind. 

At length, a good Scotch brother, who well knew 
the wiles and the depths of Satan, was showing, in 
his sermon, how the adversary sometimes tries to 
break the hold of the will upon Christ by a long, per- 
sistent pressure of temptation upon it. It was as if 
he had set a siege about the soul to starve it into sur- 
render. He told the following story in illustration : 
An old Scotch baron was attacked by his enemy, who 
encamped before his gates, and would allow no pro- 
visions to enter them. He continued the siege long 
enough to have exhausted the supplies within, but 
there were no signs of capitulation. Weeks and 



THE BELIEVER'S VICTORY. 311 

months passed away, and yet no surrender. After 
a long time, the besieger was surprised, one morn- 
ing, to see a long line of fish, fresh from the sea, 
hung over the wall; as much as to say, "We can 
feed you ; and surely you can not starve us out, so 
long as there are fish in the sea, for we have an 
underground connection with it, and the supply is 
exhaustless ! " w So," said the preacher, w Satan may 
besiege our gates, but he can never compel us to sur- 
render, for our food comes, not through the gates, 
but from above, and through channels invisible to 
his eye ; and the living Bread of Life, which is inex- 
haustible, is within the gates. No matter how long 
the siege, we need not fear." And thus, a precious 
way of escape was opened to our long-tried student. 

Mrs. Hester Ann Rogers so well learned this great 
lesson of overcoming by faith, that she finally gave 
herself little or no concern about temptation. She 
seemed able, as it were, to feel the shadow of a 
coming trial before it reached her, and, with a strong 
and beautiful faith, she would humbly and confidently 
say to the great Deliverer, " Lord, see thou to that," 
and the victory was sure to come. And why not? 

Christ fights the battle with us ; he even makes it 
his own (2 Chron. 20 : 15) ; and why should we not 
expect of him always to give us a decisive and tri- 
umphant victory? Let us not limit the Holy One 
of Israel, who can make lice, and flies, and frogs 
stronger for us than Pharaoh can be against us. 



312 the believer's victory. 

By the successful fighting, for a season, of the 
"good fight of faith," by the knowledge and strength 
gained in the process, temptation may ere long cease 
seriously to disturb us. As a means of greater 
purity and growth, it may even, if God so please, be 
quite welcome. Our victory will be permanent. 
Indeed our own agency may come to be so swal- 
lowed up in Christ, our interests so absolutely one 
with his, that we shall not practically know ourselves 
except as being in him, or recognize any other agency 
than his in the work of our salvation. We may gain 
the moral position of Paul, and know nothing but 
Christ and him crucified. 

The true and earnest Christian shall be more than 
a conqueror. His triumph over Satan shall be so 
much beyond a bare victory, that that enemy himself 
shall be made a most effective instrument in devel- 
oping, in minute and beautiful proportions on the 
believer's heart, that very image of the Lord Jesus 
which he sought to damage or destroy. He shall 
learn, by a most blessed experience, the fact that 
God overrules even the devices of Satan, as well as 
all other forms of evil, to the upbuilding in faith and 
holiness of those who believe in him. Let not the 
believer, then, fear the conflict. Soon, standing 
upon the crystal sea, with the w harp of God " in his 
hand, he shall sing the conqueror's song, and wear 
the conqueror's crown. 

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